EoW July 2009

Dies & die shop equipment

PCD materials Kiwus has 25 years of experience with PCD materials for the wire drawing industry. The company’s developments under the product name of MANT were coarse grain PCD materials with grain sizes of 25 and 40-micron, thermostable up to 1,000˚C.

Die technology from France

Agir Technologies has increased its range of CNC machines to manufacture and repair a large range of tungsten carbide drawing dies from 0.2mm to 6.5mm. These fully automatic machines are managed by OPLC and combine modern technology with ease of use and a robust construction that allows productivity and precision, essential to the production of drawing dies. TCLD-C-CNC is dedicated to the working of the die cone with control of the meeting point; the other machine, the TCLD-B-CNC, calibrates the bearing of the dies and polishes. The brand new automatic machine TCSD-CB-CNC is a single machine for the complete production and repair of tungsten carbide dies of smaller diameters: the cone and bearing of dies from 0.2mm to 1.5mm can now be ground and then polished automatically on one machine. Agir Technologies markets other Mouton machines to manufacture and repair smaller quantities of dies of any diameter: internal grinding machines, lapping machines, polishing lathes, as well as all the consumable products necessary to the production of tungsten carbide dies such as diamond paste and grinding wheels. Agir Technologies – France Fax : +33 3 80518136 Email : ferret@agir-technologies.com Website : www.agir-technologies.com

The material has been supplied to customers in the tungsten and molybdenum drawing industry (hot drawing) and in the welding wire industry. The most common grain size in the stainless steel and copper drawing industry is 5-micron. Four years ago the “bread-and- butter” 5-micron PCD material was re-engineered. The aim was to develop a PCD material free of inclusions, cavities and micro-clusters (soft zones) by using materials of the highest purity. Diamond makes up more than 85% of the PCD material. The diamond micron powder used for the MANT process has total metal impurities lower than 70 ppm. Grain size is consistent between 3 and 5-micron to avoid fine particles hindering the catalyst infiltration.

▲ ▲ The MANT range includes coarse-grained PCD materials

No large particles disturb the fine PCD surface when manufactured into a drawing die. The same attention was extended to the other materials, applied in the high temperature high-pressure sintering process. RCT inspection at the RWTH Aachen University proved that the MANT-005 material is inclusion-free. Results in different branches of the drawing industry were all positive.

A range of standard PCD blanks is available, or special sizes can be made on request.

Kiwus GmbH – Germany Email : info@kiwus.com Website : www.mant.com

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EuroWire – July 2009