Ceratizit says that it has won an innovation award for developing a new way to 3D print tungsten carbide-cobalt.
The company was recognized by FEDIL, a Luxembourgian business networking company, in its process category.
‘The additive manufacturing [AM] of components made of plastic, steel and other materials has continued to grow in importance over the last few years,’ the company said. ‘However, in the case of cemented carbide, there had not been a reliable process so far that achieved the same standard of quality as the manufacturing processes that had been established and optimised over decades.’
According to Ceratizit, another advantage of AM carbide is being able to make small, highly complex parts such as prototypes, without requiring production-intensive shapes and dies as well as the expensive, diamond-tipped tools which are needed for the machining of carbide parts.
It is also possible to print structures with undercuts or areas inaccessible to cutting tools such as cavities and channels inside the finished body, which cannot be accessed from outside at a later stage, the company said.
This story uses material from Ceratizit, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
