Applications of Cores in PCD Wire Drawing Dies

PCD is also called polycrystalline diamond. The common models of wire drawing dies in the market include SD, CXD and CXT series.

The successful development of PCD brings great changes to wire drawing industry, which makes the whole process more efficient and stable. PCD is made by sintering micro diamond particles and bond under high temperature and high pressure. It has the advantages of high hardness, good wear resistance, strong impact resistance and so on. It is suitable for high-speed drawing because of its uniform wear and long service life. Because PCD is isotropic in macroscopic, it will not wear unevenly or be out of round like monocrystal diamond. In addition, the price of PCD is much lower than that of monocrystal diamond, so PCD is widely used in wire drawing industry. At present, cores in PCD wire drawing dies are used in most diamond drawing dies.

According to different binders, cores in PCD wire drawing dies can be divided into two types: cobalt base and silicon base. Cobalt based PCD mold core contains metal bond, which has good machinability. It can be processed by EDM, laser, ultrasonic and other processes. However, the presence of metal cobalt makes diamond easy to graphitize at high temperature. Therefore, this kind of mold core is suitable for processing and use at the temperature below 650 ℃. The machinability of silicon-based PCD core is relatively poor, but there is no metal bond in the material, so the material can still maintain good thermal stability at 1000 ℃.