Failure analyses of cemented tungsten carbide extrusion die

Abstract

In this study, the failure of a cemented tungsten carbide extrusion die (WC–Co) which was designed for the production of 55 000 components but failed during production of third component has been investigated. The die is used for cold extrusion of auto parts components as sizing die. Sizes achieved by forging process are further refined to required fine tolerance. The component size is required to be controlled within ±20 μm. The investigations revealed that the failure is due to abusive machining of cemented tungsten carbide. Detail studies under different electrical discharge machining conditions have been made to investigate the formation of cracks and their morphology. The major cause of the failure is established as abusive electrical discharge machining conditions with higher pulse current, which lead to micro- to macrocracks at the machining stage. These cracks further enlarged under load conditions when extrusion was done. Based on this study experiments were performed under different machining conditions on the WC–Co material. Optimum parameters were established for machining and accordingly new die was designed and fabricated which is performing very well.