The discovery of the increase of hardness in tungsten carbide-cobalt tools by chargedparticle irradiation is reported in this paper. The hardness of different grades (Wimet H, N, and CXT) was measured as a function oldose. Tungsten carbide alloys of different cobalt percentages and different grain sizes were irradiated, and all showed a systematic increase in hardness with dose. The increase in the Vickers hardness was about 30% after bombardments of the order of 10μAh/cm2, and for H grade the hardness could be as high as 2600 kg/mm2 Other aspects, such as changes in structure and the presence of radioactivity, were also examined.
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