Cemented carbides are high performance materials used in a broad range of industrial fields and production processes. They are currently considered almost indispensable, due to the ever-increasing demand on tools, materials and precision processing as a result of the development of new complex products and new modern materials. Cemented carbides have a high wear resistance and therefore substantially increased tool life and related minimum downtimes of mechanical machining. The demand for complex and/or multi-material components is growing significantly, in particular, for new high strength carbides.
Cemented carbides are composite materials consisting of tungsten-carbide (WC), which is an extremely hard material, and a relatively soft binding material, such as cobalt (Co). The characteristics of the WC-powder used to produce a cemented carbide have a major influence on its achievable hardness and wear resistance. Research results in literature indicate, that a higher carburization temperature of 2500°C could lead to an increase in the hardness and wear resistance of the cemented carbides produced using the resulting high-quality WC-powder.
Present state-of-the-art industrial furnaces operate at a maximum temperature of 2200°C. CARBIDE2500 is the newest development from the company CREMER that solves the challenges posed by the extremely high process temperature, allowing for carburization at 2500°C at an industrial scale, with lower costs. In Europe alone, more than 4000 enterprises are involved with this technology. These companies will strongly benefit from the increased availability of high-quality cemented carbide material, made possible through the use of the new CARBIDE2500 technology.
Conclusions of the action: During the CARBIDE2500 project the technological goal of achieving a maximum process temperature of 2500°C for the high-temperature carburization was successfully achieved. During the demonstration tests carried out with small-scale CARBIDE2500 furnace constructed and tested during the project, the conventional raw powders (W + C) were used to produce WC at process temperatures of 1600 °C, 2200 °C and 2500 °C. The produced powders were analysed regarding their particle size, chemical composition and microstructure. The results of the microstructural analysis and powder morphology clearly show the growth of the tungsten carbide crystals towards higher carburization temperature resulting in the shift from polycrystalline to monocrystalline WC-particles. The analyses results of the high-temperature carburized WC produced with the CARBIDE2500 furnace during the demonstration tests therefore confirmed the influence of a higher process temperature on the characteristics of the WC-powder.
The core goal of this business project was to further develop and commercialize the new unique CARBIDE2500 pusher furnace technology. In particular, the goals of this project included marketing and demonstration activities to increase the awareness of the CARBIDE2500 technology and thereby more efficiently overcome barriers to the continued market entry. The awareness of the CARBIDE2500 technology was communicated successfully not only to powder produces, but also to hard metal product developers during conferences, through articles and adverts in journals and with the help of the CREMER international representatives.
