Wear of cemented carbide dies for steel cord wire drawing

Abstract

Cemented carbide dies with the five categories of composition, namely, WC-Co straight alloy, TaNbC-, Cr3C2- or VC-containing WC-Co alloys and WC-Ni alloy, were fabricated by sintering and HIP-treatment. The wear behavior of these cemented carbide dies for drawing steel cord wire is examined, and material properties such as hardness, transverse-rupture strength and corrosion resistance are evaluated. Through the above investigations, it is particularly noted that the TaNbC-containing alloy shows the longest life time of steel cord drawing die, which is followed by Cr3C 2-containing alloy, WC-Co, VC-containing alloy and WC-Ni alloy. The results on strength and corrosion resistance have no relation with the drawing die life. The hardness has some degree of relation with the die life; for example, among the same category alloy, there is such a tendency that the longer die life is obtained for the higher hardness. However, it is not able to explain simply by the viewpoint of hardness the reason why TaNbC-containing alloy has the longest life although the VC-containing alloy has the finest grain size and the highest hardness. The wear mechanism of cemented carbide dies for steel cord wire drawing was discussed to consider WC/Co interface adhesion. © 2012 The Japan Institute of Metals.