On the fully automatic forming servo press, the mechanical arm keeps dancing. In less than a second, the gray-black powder is pressed and formed into a blade the size of a fingernail.
This is the CNC tool, known as the "teeth" of the industrial mother machine-the diameter of the micro drill bit is as fine as 0.01 mm, which can "embroider" 56 Chinese characters on a grain of rice; the drilling tool is as wide as a tire, which can eat soft soil and chew hard rock, and is used on the cutter head of the domestically produced ultra-large diameter shield machine "Juli No. 1".
There is a world in the small tool. The toughness of "iron teeth and copper teeth" comes from cemented carbide, which is second only to diamond in hardness.
In industrial manufacturing, tools are consumables. Only when they are hard enough can they be wear-resistant; only when they are strong enough can they not break; and only when they are tough enough can they resist impact. Compared with traditional steel tools, cemented carbide tools have a cutting speed that is 7 times faster and a service life that can be extended by nearly 80 times.
Why is cemented carbide insert "indestructible"?
The answer can be found in tungsten carbide powder, the raw material of cemented carbide, just like the quality of coffee powder directly affects the taste of coffee. The quality of tungsten carbide powder largely determines the performance of cemented carbide products.
The finer the grain size of tungsten carbide powder, the higher the hardness, strength and wear resistance of the alloy material, the tighter the bond between the binder and tungsten carbide, and the more stable the material. However, if the grain size is too small, the toughness, thermal conductivity and mechanical strength of the material will be reduced, and the processing difficulty will also increase. "Precise control of technical indicators and process details is the biggest difficulty. In the process of developing high-end alloy products, the quality requirements for tungsten carbide powder are becoming more and more stringent.
For a long time, high-end tungsten carbide powder has been mainly dependent on imports. The price of imported ordinary tungsten carbide powder used for cutting tools is 20% more expensive than that in China, and imported nano tungsten carbide powder is even twice as expensive. Moreover, foreign companies respond slowly, not only do they need to book in advance, but they also have to wait for several months for delivery. The demand in the tool market changes very quickly, and often orders come, but the supply of raw materials cannot keep up. What should I do if I am controlled by others? Do it yourself!
At the beginning of 2021, in Zhuzhou, Hunan, an intelligent workshop for medium-coarse tungsten carbide powder with an investment of more than 80 million yuan started construction, and it will be completed and put into production at the end of the year.
The intelligent workshop is spacious and bright. On the coarse tungsten powder silo, the QR code records the raw material information, and the automatic material transport forklift flashes the induction light, shuttling between the reduction furnace and the carburizing furnace During the process, more than 10 processes such as feeding, unloading and transferring are almost free of manual operation.
Intelligent transformation has improved efficiency and quality control, and the technical research on the preparation process has not stopped: the tungsten carbide process is precisely designed for the carburizing temperature, and advanced ball milling and air flow crushing technology and processes are used to ensure that the crystal integrity and dispersion of tungsten carbide powder are in the best state.
Downstream demand drives the progress of upstream technology, and tungsten carbide powder is continuously upgraded to a higher level. Good raw materials make good products. High-quality tungsten carbide powder injects good "genes" into downstream cemented carbide products, making the product performance better, and can be used in more "high-precision" fields such as aerospace, electronic information, etc.
Next to the medium-coarse tungsten carbide powder production line, another ultra-fine tungsten carbide powder intelligent production line with an investment of 250 million yuan is under construction. It is expected to be completed and put into production next year, when the quality of ultra-fine tungsten carbide powder will reach the international advanced level.
Post time: Jan-14-2025