Why Tungsten Carbide Dies Are the Best Choice for Fastener Production？

Tungsten Carbide (WC-Co) dies are the best choice for fastener cold heading, stamping and thread forming because of their ultra-high hardness, wear resistance and long life.

The hardness of tungsten carbide (WC-Co) reaches HRA 90-94, which is more than 2 times of high speed steel (HRC 60-65). Wear resistance is 10-20 times higher than alloy steel molds, especially suitable for stainless steel, titanium alloy and other high hardness materials processing.

When producing M6 screws, the service life of cemented carbide mold can reach more than 1 million times, while the steel mold is only 5-10 million times. Mold tolerance can be controlled within ± 0.005mm to ensure consistency of fastener thread and head size. Surface roughness Ra ≤ 0.2μm, reducing the subsequent polishing process. At present, automotive engine bolts, aerospace fasteners and other high-end areas are mandatory use of carbide molds.

Cemented Carbide mold stability advantage is extremely strong, its compressive strength up to 6000MPa, cold heading process almost no plastic deformation.

Temperature resistance is more than 1200°C, which is suitable for high-speed continuous stamping (e.g. more than 300 times per minute cold heading machine). Steel molds may have 0.02mm deformation after 2 hours of continuous work, while the deformation of tungsten carbide molds is less than 0.002mm. tungsten carbide molds can be repetitively sharpened (usually 3-5 times), and each time sharpening restores 90% of the performance.