Development of cermet materials for wire drawing

The introduction of tungsten carbide based hard metals in the industrial use during the first half of the 20th century revolutionised the machining technology. The processing of many materials was made possible by this invention. Especially the fabrication of drawing dies became possible. The requirements to drawing dies still increasing since new wire qualities enter the market. Especially the tyre making industry has a huge demand for new wear resistant parts since the drawing of stel cords is a big part in the fabrication of car tyres. ARC Seibersdorf has started with the development of special cermets some years ago, with emphasis on the field of composite materials on TiN and AI2 O3 basis embedded in a nanostructured WC-Co matrix. The amount of hard materials is thereby in the range of 70-80vol.%. The use of innovative sintering methods helps to obtain better and for a peculiar application tailored mechanical properties of the cermets. Additionally a better chemical resistance combined with advantageous thermal properties could be achieved. For the application as drawing dies these parameters are of big importance. Especially the mechanical wear under thermal exposure and in a special chemical environment has a big influence on the endurance, which is crucial for the industrial application. In this project the composition of the WC/Co-AI2 O3 and WC/Co-TiN cermets should be optimised and the relationship between material properties/performance and material composition/processing investigated on a scientific level. This includes also cost effective sinter procedures based on net shape and rapid sintering methods). The improvement of the fabrication method to obtain drawing dies with small apertures (<0.5 mm) for the cord production is crucial. Beside the optimisation of process and composition the project will also allow an assessment of the material and the different production processes and therefore allow a statement on the further exploitation of the achieved results.