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News Release from: Uddeholm Tooling | Subject: Vancron 40 nitrided PM die steel
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 April 2007
PM cold-work die steel has low friction
A powder metallurgy die steel offers low friction, reduced galling and superior adhesive wear propertis for cold forming of aluminium, stainless steels and mild steels.
The Uddeholm Vancron 40 nitrided powder metallurgy (PM) die steel has a 'surface coating' already integrated into the finished tooling material The result is a tool surface with very low friction that reduces galling - or sticking - of soft work materials during cold forming processes
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 14 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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In several cold work applications, like the forming, for example, of aluminium, stainless steel and mild steel, galling and adhesive wear are often the major tooling problems.
This can also be the case with powder metal compacting, cold extrusion and blanking or shearing of different work materials.
One common way of coping with the problem is to use surface coatings, such as CVD (chemical vapour deposition), PVD (physical vapour deposition) or TD (Toyota Diffusion).
Vacron 40 can eliminate these time- and cost-consuming surface coatings.
In the Vacron 40 production process an extra nitriding operation has been introduced.
Uddeholm has spent a lot of time and resources in this development, and can now launch a new type of PM tool steel with a special kind of internal surface coating.
Field trials of Vancron 40 have shown in a number of applications a tool life improvement of 10 times.
Vancron 40 has also been shown to match the performance of more expensive surface-coated tools.
`Beside having a novel chemical composition, Vancron 40 is also processed through a nitriding operation of the loose powder before 'hipping' (HIP - hot isostatic pressing) Hipping increases the nitrogen content of th material and forms small, well-distributed vanadium nitrides, which reduce friction, galling and adhesive wear of the tool in many cold-work operations.
benefits for the tool user include improved and consistent quality of the manufactured parts,e specially regarding surface finish.
More reliable delivery time and higher utilisation of the production equipment are also benefits, with fewer production interruptions.
Further improvements include simplified maintenance, which can often be made 'in-house' as no tool surface re-coating is required.
Summing up, it means that the product quality will be uniform from the first part produced to the last and that a tool or die manufactured in Uddeholm Vancron 40 will make it easier for the user to keep to delivery schedule commitments.
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