Over 100 years of history

From pioneer to global player

Almost a whole century has passed since CERAMETAL and Plansee Tizit first started out as pioneers of advanced carbide products. A constant thirst for developing new technologies and innovative solutions for wear-protection and cutting tools led these companies to grow and expand on a global scale. Their merging in 2002 marked the birth of a new global player in the carbide industry: CERATIZIT.

All you ever wanted to know about CERATIZIT

The most interesting facts about CERATIZIT and our innovative carbide solutions. We let the numbers do the talk.

More than 30 production sites worldwide

CERATIZIT is producing worldwide with more than 30 production sites in Europe, Asia and Northamerica. This also includes production sites of our joint-venture CB-CERATIZIT which is an important part of our presence in Asia.

 

More than 8000 employees worldwide

Here at CERATIZIT we have over 8,000 employees working at more than 30 production sites across the globe. We employ a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, economists and sociologists, as well as staff with varied experience and training backgrounds.  Together as a team we work tirelessly to continuously develop new carbide solutions.

 

8 out of 10 of management positions at CERATIZIT are filled internally. With each new day we reaffirm our management principles of trust, openness and scope for development. In order to continually improve the quality of our management we offer a number of development programmes, including Senior or General Management Training, General Development Training and various Supervisor and Team Leader courses.

 

More than 1000 patens & utility models

CERATIZIT holds more than 1,000 patents and utility models worldwide and employs more than 200 employees in the field of R&D. Thanks to our innovative, award-winning tool solutions and coatings CERATIZIT has become a global market leader in numerous fields of application.

 

100 years of experience

Carbides have been available for over 100 years now and their scope of application is practically limitless. We are always looking for new challenges when it comes to wear parts and cutting tools, and when we do we are all about finding tailor-made solutions.

Company shuttle service

Over 500 employees use the company buses provided at our sites in Mamer, Luxembourg and Reutte (Austria) on a daily basis. This ensures that our employees get to work and back home safely and well-rested, particularly in winter and later at night. This also benefits the environment by relieving pressure on the streets and parking spaces close to the production site.

 

ISO 50001 certification

Our production site in Reutte has been certified in accordance with the energy management standard ISO 50001 since 2011. When we began extending the site in 2013, we used wood – a renewable resource – as our primary building material. With an outer shell providing good insulation and efficient heat recovery, we keep energy consumption levels to a minimum.

 

 IATF 16949 certification

The automotive industry demands the highest standards of product quality, productivity, competitiveness and continuous improvement. In order to achieve such standards, car manufacturers insist that their suppliers adhere to strict technical specifications. These are prescribed by the quality management standard for suppliers IATF 16949. CERATIZIT Empfingen GmbH has met these conditions since July 2013, making us the second carbide manufacturer worldwide to have the IATF 16949 certification.

 

3 minutes to pack your order

The state-of-the-art high-performance picking system at the CERATIZIT logistics centre in Kempten (Germany) has reduced order processing time to just 3 minutes – from the moment the order is received to the time the package is ready for delivery.

 

50 degree spiralled carbide rods with coolant holes

Particularly in the field of aviation, the drilling of materials like CFRP, aluminium and titanium requires a stepped rivet hole drill. With decades of experience under its belt, CERATIZIT has succeeded in developing a new kind of extrusion technology, enabling us to manufacture 50-degree spiralled carbide rods with coolant holes.

 

4500 Vickers

At over 4,500 Vickers, CERATIZIT's patented CVD-TiB2 coating is the second hardest on the market (after diamond coating). It is characterised by high chemical stability, wear resistance and sufficient toughness. Its super-flat surface ensures quick and efficient chip removal. Hard coatings of this kind allow an easy and efficient machining of particularly demanding materials like titanium or super alloys.

 

75000 items for the cutting industry

As a cutting tools regional distribution network, Team Cutting Tools offers the largest range of products in the cutting industry. The CERATIZIT sales subsidiary markets approximately 75,000 products with a steady ex-warehouse delivery capacity of 99 percent. Its 2,000-page catalogue is available in 13 languages.

 

ALPHA = 6  ///  VERSUS 11,7  ///  X10^-6/K

Steel and carbide can be distinguished by their material properties, such as toughness and thermal expansion. The coefficient of linear expansion for carbide is 6 x 10-6/K; for steel it is 11.7 x 10-6/K. Manufacturing a drill requires both of these materials to be combined. In order to prevent cracks appearing at the connection point, CERATIZIT manufactures solid carbide drills with a gradient structure. This means that the carbide at the tip is extremely hard and wear-resistant. On the steel side the carbide is tough enough to enable a stable welded connection with the steel shaft.

8 minutes for an 18 inch aluminum wheel

With CERATIZIT cutting tools you can make four 18-inch aluminium sports wheels in less than eight minutes.

 

700 milimeters long XXL rods

Our XXL rods are used by tool manufacturers to produce 700 millimetre-long double-edged twist drills. These tools allow you to drill lubrication holes into large crankshafts for truck or naval vessel engines six times faster than conventional tools. The most difficult task for the developers was to ensure that the cooling holes, spiraling throughout the rods, retain their position and inclination despite the exceptional length of these rods.

 

0.2 grams is the most lightweight insert

The most lightweight carbide cutting tool insert we produce at CERATIZIT weighs just 0.2 grams. The hole used to mount the insert is larger than the carbide part. The insert is used for finishing in universal milling applications. The heaviest  insert weighs 450 grams and is used for bar peeling.

 

700 kg heavy tools

A high-pressure tool used to manufacture synthetic diamonds can weigh over 700 kilograms. A pen ball, however, weighs just a few milligrams. CERATIZIT uses a variety of different manufacturing processes, which in turn produce carbide products of various geometrical dimensions.

 

Factor 80

Corrosion-resistant CF grades are mainly used to make tools for punching, bending, cutting and coining. These patented carbide grades help to reduce corrosion tendency and speed of corrosion by a factor of 80. Given the high corrosive potential of certain tools, CF grades ensure that their corrosion resistance is considerably increased, resulting in economical production and consistently high lifetime.

 

0.2 micrometers

Our cemented carbides are composites consisting of tungsten carbide and cobalt. The soft cobalt serves as a binding agent and adds toughness to the carbide. Tungsten carbide delivers the required hardness and necessary wear resistance. Achieving the optimum carbide grade is dependent on the amount of cobalt used and the grain size of the hard phase. To ensure the highest level of wear resistance we reduce the cobalt content to a minimum and the grain size of the tungsten carbide to less than 0.2 micrometres.

 

1500° C

At temperatures of between 1300°C and 1500°C and pressures of up to 100 bar, pressed green parts are sintered to a dense, homogeneous and extremely hard form of cemented carbide, reducing its volume by up to 50 percent.