The pressing mould of the tungsten carbide powder is the part that plays a decisive role in the pressing process. It is a mold that turns the tungsten carbide powder into a blank with a certain shape and size. Its function is to ensure the shape and size of the blank, with sufficient density and strength, and to ensure the relative uniformity of the density of the blank.

 

Materials for the pressing mould of the tungsten carbide powder must have high hardness, high strength, high wear resistance and enough toughness. The common materials include tool steel, tungsten carbide, steel bond hard alloy and so on.

 

 

For the tungsten carbide, the cost of the mould will count over 10%. Due to the rapid development of tungsten carbide and the appearance of advanced equipment, products are developed to structural parts, high density and high performance. There is a prominent contradiction between the short die life and the cost of the mold material.

 

Steel Mould

Generally, carbon tool steel (T10A, T12A, etc.), alloy tool steel (Cr12, GCr15, etc.), high speed steel (W18Cr4V and so on) are selected. Compared with other mold materials, the cost of the steel mould is much lower than the cost of the tungsten carbide mould or the steel bond hard alloy mould.

 

However, the wear resistance of steel mould is poor. It is easy to be worn and discarded. Worse still, it is easily scratched which will lead to poor quality of products. This requires employees to make a choice here. Generally speaking, if the product is small and simple in shape, and the precision is not high, the steel mould can be selected.

 

Tungsten Carbide Mould

The properties of tungsten carbide are high hardness, good wear resistance and high compressive strength. Therefore, it is suitable for making powder metallurgy mold, especially suitable for pressing large quantities of high density precision parts. The die life of the tungsten carbide materials and the number of total pressure parts are far higher than the steel mould.

 

But at the same time, the cost of tungsten carbide mould is much higher than that of steel mould. In addition, the tungsten carbide material also has the problems of brittleness, easy to collapse and so on. In the process of powder compaction, t is more favorable to adopt the tungsten carbide mould if the quantity of the products is large and the forming requirement is high.