Abrasive Flow Polishing of Tungsten Carbide Wire Drawing Die

摘要

In the process of wire drawing, the desired wire diameter and finish of the wire is achieved by drawing the wire through a die. Polishing work improves die life, material quality, and production time and gives better efficiency. Insufficient polishing of a die is the major cause of poor wire quality and die life. Most of polishing processes are being manually conducted by operators, depending on their skill and experience. Therefore, to improve the productivity and to address the problem of shortage of skilled workers automatic polishing processes are required. In the present work, Abrasive Flow Polishing was carried on a tungsten carbide die. Effect of extrusion pressure and number of working cycles was studied on surface finish. With increase in extrusion pressure and number of cycle surface finish increases. And results were compared with manual polishing done in the wire drawing industry. Abrasive flow polishing gives better surface finish as compared to manual polishing. Die wear and surface roughness before drawing and after drawing wire of EN9 were compared at single stage wire drawing machine, abrasive flow polished die gives better results as compared to hand polished die.