Optimizing pressure sintering process

A slightly higher load

Modern cutting, drilling or milling tools are made of a carbide metal alloy and are exposed to extreme mechanical loads, high temperatures and abrasive wear. In order to meet the range of requirement criteria the best possible, the tool alloys are produced by powder metallurgy, cold-pressed into shape and then sintered. Read here how our GraphitePeople

were able to help make the print sintering process

more effective and efficient.

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Background

Carbide metal tools are used in many volume-removing machining processes (lathing, milling, sawing). The manufacturing process is sophisticated and accessible worldwide. Competition is forcing manufacturers to continuously optimize their manufacturing processes and products.

Overview

Industry:

Tool, mold and machine construction

Procedure:

Pressure Sintering

Solution:

Optimized sintering base

Services:

Analyses and simulations, new design, production of CFC sintering bases

Result:

Increase in added value through process efficiency (outputs per furnace run)

The challenge

Sintering high-performance tools is technically demanding and expensive. The procurement costs alone for the raw materials used in powder form, such as tungsten, vanadium, tantalum and niobium carbide, are considerable. It is therefore crucial for the manufacturers of these tools to make the sintering process stable, efficient and trouble-free and trouble-free.

The furnace run is one of the last steps in the process chain and adds energy costs to the value creation that has already taken place. The quality of products manufactured using powder metallurgy can only be assessed after sintering. The optimal piece loading with tools is therefore a decisive competitive factor.

The specific task: economic and qualitative optimization of the oven run

The question for us in this example was: How can we manage to increase the loading density and the degree of utilization in pressure sintering, i.e. increase the number of tools?

A challenge!

Process results

When looking at the status quo, the focus quickly fell on the graphite floor panel with a thickness of 40 mm that had previously been used. Using an FEM analysis we were able to determine the following optimization potentials:

Reduction of mass and volume

By switching from a graphite to a CFC sintered base, it was possible to significantly reduce the mass and volume of the sintered base due to the higher specific strength and thus the higher load-bearing capacity of CFC

. The new base measured just 20 mm with less deflection. This was also associated with an optimization of the temperature distribution due to the reduced mass.

Increased output per furnace run

Halving the panel thickness from 40 to 20 mm made it possible to provide 5% more filling volume for the treatment of the components. This made the change cost-efficient and effective.

The result

Based on our expertise, the customer was able to noticeably increase the output and thus the added value per furnace run. The new sintered underlays had already paid for themselves after about two months.

Your contact person

Eduard Lassel

Head of Engineering

+49 911 999 01 03-40

eduard.lassel@graphite-materials.com