Material Types And Characteristics Of Wire Drawing Dies

Wire drawing dies are made from a variety of materials, primarily including natural diamond, cemented carbide, polycrystalline diamond (synthetic diamond), CVD diamond, ceramic, and steel dies.

Natural diamond wire drawing dies have high hardness and good wear resistance, but are brittle, extremely difficult to process, and are the most expensive. Due to their anisotropy, they are prone to severe wear, and therefore are generally only suitable for processing wires with very small diameters.

Cemented carbide dies have advantages such as good polishability, low adhesion, low coefficient of friction, and high corrosion resistance, but their hardness is relatively low, their wear resistance is poor, and their die life is short. They can be used for drawing wires of various diameters.

Polycrystalline diamond (synthetic diamond) dies have a hardness second only to natural diamond and are isotropic, preventing the phenomenon of accelerated radial wear. However, they are expensive, difficult to process, and have high manufacturing costs.

CVD diamond wire drawing dies possess excellent wear resistance due to the properties of diamond, resulting in low surface roughness, high smoothness, and good temperature resistance in the drawn wires. However, their manufacturing process is complex, difficult to process, and costly.

Ceramic dies offer higher hardness and wear resistance than cemented carbide dies and are inexpensive to manufacture, making them an excellent material between diamond and cemented carbide. However, due to their poor toughness, poor thermal shock resistance, and difficult processing, ceramics have not achieved widespread application.

Steel dies are easy to repair and inexpensive, but their hardness and wear resistance are relatively poor, resulting in a short lifespan. They are mainly used for low-volume production of large-section profiles.

The selection of wire drawing die material must be matched with factors such as the type of drawn wire, the performance of the lubricant, the die's aperture shape, and cooling conditions to extend the die's service life.