Patent ID: 7309373

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a densified ceramic body comprising: milling a mixture of tungsten-carbide particles and an organic solvent establishing a milling mixture; adding cobalt to the milling mixture; contacting the milling mixture with a binder material establishing a resultant binding mixture; granulating the resultant binding mixture into a population of substantially spherical granules; densifying a plurality of spherical granules into a preform ceramic body; removing the binding from the preform ceramic body at an elevated temperature, forming a debindered population of tungsten carbide particles in the perform; and sintering the debindered preform ceramic body to form a densified tungsten carbide containing body having a transverse rupture strength of at least about 300,000 pounds-per-square inch and a Rockwell A-scale hardness between about 95 and about 96 at 20° C.