Session: 18-01-05: Conventional Manufacturing

Paper Number: 150782

150782 - Sustainability of Tungsten Carbide Cutting Tools: An Industrial Case Study 

Tungsten carbide is widely used as a material for making dies, as cutting tools, and for the application of industrial gears. The application capabilities of the material can be attributed to its peculiar properties, such as high wear and corrosion resistance, compressive strength, and hot hardness. In some applications, tungsten carbide is used for high-temperature wear applications with custom complex geometries. Geometrical optimization is a critical design aspect of tungsten carbides, which are a high-density material for designing custom dies and cutting tools. Thus, additive manufacturing is an attractive alternative for manufacturing tungsten carbide products. For the conventional manufacturing process, the tungsten carbide and cobalt powders are mixed at high pressure and temperatures to form the desired shape. Conventionally, the raw (pre-finished) tungsten carbide parts are manufactured using traditional powder metallurgy methods such as pressing, sintering, etc. Tungsten carbide is a combination of hard metal compounds, namely “tungsten carbide,” and binder powder such as cobalt or nickel. In certain cases, other compounds, such as titanium carbide, titanium nitride, tantalum carbide, etc., are added to increase the wear resistance. Tungsten carbide powder and binder (a mixture of cobalt, nickel, titanium carbide, titanium nitride, etc.) are combined as a mixture for additive manufacturing processes such as laser bed powder fusion to manufacture tungsten carbide parts. Even though the additive manufacturing process of refractory materials, such as tungsten carbide, is relatively new and evolving, there is a need for a comparative study to analyze both traditional manufacturing processes and additive manufacturing processes. Also, the sustainability of the manufacturing process and machinability of the tungsten carbide material produced for both additive and conventional manufacturing processes are seldom studied. Another aspect of analyzing the conventional and additive manufacturing processes for refractory material is their effect on the product service life. This paper performs a comparative study on the machining of conventionally prepared and additively manufactured tungsten carbide using the grinding process. The effects of the manufacturing process on material properties such as microhardness, microstructures, compressive strength, and density are studied. The processed material is analyzed for material characterization, such as SEM, EBSD, EDX, etc., to comprehend the effects of the manufacturing process on the surface and the material integrity. Additionally, this paper uses a metric-based sustainability assessment methodology; a sustainable process metric system, namely ProcSI, developed by the University of Kentucky, is used in this study to comprehend different manufacturing process steps. Also, ProcSI is used to compare additive manufacturing and conventional manufacturing processes for sustainability analysis.

Presenting Author: Chandra Sekhar Rakurty The M. K. Morse Company

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Sekhar Rakurty (rakurtys@mkmorse.com) has over 20+ years of research and development experience in manufacturing, more specifically, designing cutting tools and cutting fluid delivery systems. He has completed his Master of Science and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah. He has co-authored peer-reviewed publications on machining and sustainable solutions. Currently, he leads the research and development group at the M. K. Morse Company, Canton, Ohio. He has 13 approved patents and more than 10 patent applications pending for new cutting tool designs. Also, he is currently an ASME B5 (machine tools) and B94 (cutting tools) standards committee member, B107 (hand tools) standards committee contributing member, and ad-hoc faculty member at the University of Akron.

Authors:

Chandra Sekhar Rakurty The M. K. Morse Company
Tanmay Tiwari The University of Akron