Material Extrusion to Manufacture Carbide-Based Advanced Cutting Tools

Material extrusion (MEX) allows for the production of advanced cutting tools with new internal cooling systems, which are suitable for new machining equipment. To produce cutting tools via this process, hardmetal and cermet feedstock must be prepared for the extrusion of 3D printing filaments. After shaping the 3D object (green), debinding and sintering must be performed to achieve densification. Defects and microstructural heterogeneities were studied according to the powder material. The present study shows that, although MEX is a viable solution for hardmetals, it needs to produce homogeneous filaments for cermets. The WC-Co bulk microstructures versus hardness were similar to the ones that were measured with pressing and sintering. While cermet (Ti(CN)/WC-Ni/Co) microstructures were heterogeneous, their hardness, when compared with that from the pressing and sintering manufacturing process, decreased significantly.