Cermets are any metal based (and / or metal bonded) ceramic although definitions differ.   Ordinary tungsten carbide is a cermet.  Through translation errors cermet has come to mean Titanium based grains of ceramic such as TiC, TiN or TiCN.  They typically have a Nickel / Chrome binder.  Tungsten Carbide commonly refers to WC (W for Tungsten and C for Carbon) with a cobalt binder although steel cutting grades of Tungsten Carbide have had Titanium in them for several years and nickel has been used as a binder in carbide for many years as well.  There are many articles on both Tungsten Carbide and Cermet Materials in our Carbide and Advanced Materials Articles Index.

There are a couple hundred grades of cermets available and well over 5,000 grades of tungsten carbide including coated grades.    

In November 27, 2001 I was granted United States Patent 6,322,871 (Walz, et al.) for a method to braze cermets and ceramics for use in saws, tools and other structures.  This made it possible to braze cermets and ceramics the same way tungsten carbide is brazed using the same equipment and for about the same cost.

We then started testing ceramics in sawing applications.   We got some excellent results.  Forintek ran tests of Cermet against carbide in western red cedar where the cermet stayed sharp about four times as long as carbide.