How do I separate dry Tungsten Carbide powder from a tungsten, sand, and ground tool steel mixture?

Question

Trying to Recycle ground Carbide powder from our Cutting tool shop dust collectors. I know it is a very small particulate. Anyone know of a filter or something I might use to pull out the sand and ground tool steel. Any advice might help. Thanks

Answer 1

You could heat up the mixture to about  3400°C, all that would be left is the Tungsten Carbide . This is how it is done in the trade.

Most of the tungsten metal powder is converted to tungsten carbide (WC) by reaction with pure carbon powder, e.g. carbon black, at 900 - 2200°C in pusher or batch furnaces, a process called carburisation.