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EHMG focuses hardmetal interest at 2013 EPMA Conference
special feature
EHMG focuses hardmetal interest at 2013 EPMA Conference Consultant Editor Ken Brookes reports from the Open Meeting of the European Hard Materials Group, which was held alongside the recent PM2013 Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.
A
s usual, one of the highlights of the EPMA’s PM2013 Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, - the Open Meeting of the European Hard Materials Group (EHMG) - was not strictly part of the Conference. Indeed, some of the non-member attendees found it difficult to believe that, unlike most EPMA Group meetings, it was
indeed open to all-comers. Those who did turn up (Figure 1) found it richly rewarding. After a warm welcome from joint chairman Steve Moseley (Figure 2), EPMA’s Olivier Coube set the scene with his now-traditional update on EPMA activities. To save space, I’ll skip a few items of no direct relevance to hard materials.
Coube explained that EPMA now had five Sectoral Groups, the latest being for Additive Manufacturing (EAMG). The others were for Hard Materials (EHMG), Structural Parts (ESPG), PM HIP (EPHG) and MIM (EuroMIM). Of the ten meetings in the previous year, ESPG were responsible for five and EHMG for two. Unsurprisingly, sintered carbides were not represented in the EAMG Steering Group, though experimental work on the AM of hardmetals is undoubtedly in progress in a number of locations around the world.
Training and Workshop
Figure 1: The EHMG meeting welcomed hardmetal enthusiasts from around the world. (Copyright © Kenneth JA Brookes 2013)
22
MPR November/December 2013
19 lecturers at the sell-out EPMA 2013 Summer School in Trento, Italy, had attracted 53 students. The 14th Summer School would take place in Krakow, Poland. Another highly successful EPMA training sequence is that of intensive two-day courses, the subject for 2013, in Vienna, being ‘Sintering: Advanced Processes and Materials’. Also in Vienna during April 2014, the next would cover Hard Materials, with bookings open from December 2013. Next EHMG event would be the Winterev13 Workshop in Barcelona during October. Titled ‘Fracture, Fatigue
0026-0657/13 ©2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Figure 3: Attachment of the FP7 logo indicates that a project is part of the 7th Framework Programme.
Figure 2: Joint chairman Steve Moseley welcomed delegates. (Copyright © Kenneth JA Brookes 2013)
Figure 4: Iñigo Agote, of project coordinator Tecnalia, presented details of important new research project EFFIPRO. (Copyright © Kenneth JA Brookes 2013)
and Damage Characterisation of Hard Materials Part II’, it was expected to be the last in a fascinating series that I’ve been covering for Metal Powder Report readers. The theme of the next, probably a ‘Summerev’, had apparently been decided, but not yet announced.
Legislation In July 2013 EPMA issued its 96th REACH news flash, which informs over 320 interested EPMA members by email about the latest developments of REACH and related legislation.
metal-powder.net
REACH directives cover an enormous range of chemical substances, but EPMA does its best to ensure the visibility of PM at REACH meetings. In particular, it follows issues like the status of nickel occupational exposure levels (OEL) in ESPG member sites and specific concentration limits (SCL) of ‘dangerous’ substances, which influence the classification of whole mixtures.
Club projects Open only to EPMA members, club projects are industry-defined but
coordinated by the EPMA. They are designed to deliver well-defined results on relevant R&D subjects, improve synergy between industrial and academic members, improve the visibility of the EPMA and attract new members. In the hard materials field, key results are reported at EHMG meetings open to anyone in the industry worldwide. Table 1 summarises details and status of EPMA club projects. Open to all corporate members, the EHMG project on ‘Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing of Hardmetals in the gigacycle regime’ has reached stage 2a, involving more hardmetal grades and a feasibility/reliability study of a new testing machine. FP7 (Figure 3) is the cryptic ‘Eurospeak’ name for a series of projects in which EPMA and its members provide dissemination and management skills. One such is DIRA-GREEN, aimed at developing a new inspection tool based on digital radiography. Coordinated from Budapest, it has a budget of €3 million. Based in Spain, another is EFFIPRO, subject of a special presentation by Iñigo Agote of Tecnalia (Figure 4), summarised below.
EFFIPRO With eight academic and industrial partners from six EU countries (Figure 5), the FP7 project EFFIPRO (Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process of Engineering Materials), began on 1st September 2013. Its objectives are the development and manufacturing on an industrial scale of electrical discharge consolidation (EDC) and electrical resistance sintering (ERS) equipment to develop new engineering metallic products (hard materials) with enhanced properties at lower manufacturing cost. With a total value of €5.1 million, of
November/December 2013 MPR
23
Table 1: Club projects - Three Sectoral Groups are involved, with total funding of about €380,000. Topic
Sectoral Group Contractors
Status
Overall Budget
Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing of Hardmetals in the Gigacycle Regime ‘UFTH’ Stage 1
EHMG
Completed (Oct 2010)
€31,800
Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing of Hardmetals in the Gigacycle Regime ‘UFTH’ Stage 2
EHMG
On-going (Start Sept 2011)
€70,000
Stiffness Moduli of Hardmetals ‘SMH’
EHMG
€35,000
Simulation of Fatigue Crack Growth In Hardmetals at a Mesoscopic Scale Project
EHMG
Completed (March 2011) On-going (Start Sept 2011)
Component Fatigue Strength
ESPG
On-going (Start March 2012)
€12,800
Toughness of PM HIP Steel
EPHG
On-going (Start Sept 2012)
€17,457
Hardmetal Resistivity
EHMG
On-going (Start March 2013)
€71,500
Simulation of Fatigue Crack Growth In Hardmetals at a Mesoscopic Scale Project Phase II
EHMG
On-going (Start June 2013)
€52,723
which €3.1 million will be contributed by the EC, scheduled duration is 36 months. Project coordinator is Tecnalia of San Sebastian, Spain. The basic aim of this collaborative research is given as reduction of the manufacturing process for a sintered product from hours to minutes (Figure 6), reducing the energy and effort required. The multidisciplinary approach required involves powder metallurgy, physics, chemistry, modelling, electrical and mechanical engineering, nanotechnology and hard materials. In more detail, the objectives have been expanded under a number of headings. 1. Scientific Objectives: • To understand the fundamentals of the hybrid electric current assisted sintering technology. • To develop nanostructured materials with tailored properties.
24
MPR November/December 2013
Tech. Uni, Uni. Vienna / NPL London / CEIT San Sebastian / CIEFMA Tech. Uni, Uni. Vienna / NPL London / CEIT San Sebastian / CIEFMA, UPC Barcelona NPL London IWM RWTH, Aachen / CIEFMA, UPC Barcelona IWM RWTH, Aachen (Paul Beiss) IWM RWTH, Aachen (Christoph Broeckmann) NPL London / CEIT San Sebastian IWM RWTH, Aachen / CIEFMA, UPC Barcelona / NPL London
• To study the link between the processing conditions-microstructure-mechanical properties. • To master the microstructure of parts. 2. Technical-Technological Objectives: • To develop, design and set up the new concept of hybrid electric current assisted sintering equipment: EDC+ERS. With tailor-made electrical features in order to control (i) microstructural uniformity, (ii) grain size and (iii) part homogeneity, and to enable the production of complex shapes. • To implement this knowledge-based technology in the industry at pilotplant scale. • To develop advanced hard materials, with nanosize structures (<100nm), longer durability (2 times higher) and higher toughness without loss
€35,000
of hardness; alternatively, 30% improvement in hardness and 20% improvement in transverse rupture and fracture toughness. 3. Commercial Objectives: • Implement a new PM process in the industry. • To drastically reduce the manufacturing cost of parts produced by PM technology. • To bring new materials on to the market by helping industry overcome technical difficulties in their manufacturing processes and making the European hard materials industry more competitive against Asian competitors. Various routes to market. • To substitute the use of critical elements (Co, C, W) by others with less strategic impact and lower cost.
metal-powder.net
easy implementation on an industrial scale and relatively cheap equipment. Disadvantages include heterogeneous microstructure, limited theoretical development and poor die durability. My major disappointment is that those who set up this programme have assumed (once again) that, for basic WC/Co grades, the cobalt binder can be substituted or alloyed, but the WC constituent cannot be alloyed (except for grain-growth inhibitors) but only completely substituted by Ti-base. A dedicated website should be up and running in the next month or two.
Publicity One of EPMA’s main functions is to promote powder metallurgy to designers, buyers and engineers. One of the latest publications is Spotlight on PM, in which case studies highlight PM-based improvements in product capability and performance.
Figure 5: EFFIPRO has attracted partners from six European Union countries.
• To reduce energy consumption during the process by 20%. 4. Environmental Objectives: • To complete a life-cycle analysis (LCA), closely following the guidelines of ISO14040-43 and the ILCD Handbook, that will quantify the environmental benefits of the fieldassisted sintering process for HM components; • To reduce by 25% the number of rejected parts.
• To reduce emissions of greenhouse effect gases by 40%. • To reduce materials wastage and increase the use of recycled materials by 10%. • To substitute the use of hazardous elements (Co) by safer and more environmentally friendly elements. It’s clear that the key to the entire project is the development and promotion of field-assisted sintering. Its claimed advantages include speed,
Other current PR initiatives include: • an online multimedia promotion of PM abilities and opportunities entitled ‘Design for PM’, comprising free-to-use e-learning modules; • a new EPMA website; • online papers from past EPMA conferences; • new brochures on MIM and additive manufacturing; and • dedicated end-user exhibitions in the UK and Germany.
Invited presentations
Figure 6: The EFFIPRO concept for sintered PM products.
Finally, a bonus for those attending the EHMG meeting were three invited presentations, none of which are included in the distributed Proceedings of the main PM2013 Conference. I hope to review all for Metal Powder Report readers in coming issues. • Presentation 1: Hard materials community in Sweden (Iñigo Agote Beloki, Tecnalia). • Presentation 2: Current status of thermodynamic and kinetic modelling of hardmetals and necessary data for further improvement (Karin Frisk, Swerea KIMAB, Stockholm, Sweden). • Presentation 3: PM high-speed steel versus cemented carbides (Stefan Sundin, Erasteel, Södefors, Sweden).
metal-powder.net
November/December 2013 MPR
25
EHMG focuses hardmetal interest at 2013 EPMA Conference Consultant Editor Ken Brookes reports from the Open Meeting of the European Hard Materials Group, which was held alongside the recent PM2013 Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.
A
s usual, one of the highlights of the EPMA’s PM2013 Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, - the Open Meeting of the European Hard Materials Group (EHMG) - was not strictly part of the Conference. Indeed, some of the non-member attendees found it difficult to believe that, unlike most EPMA Group meetings, it was
indeed open to all-comers. Those who did turn up (Figure 1) found it richly rewarding. After a warm welcome from joint chairman Steve Moseley (Figure 2), EPMA’s Olivier Coube set the scene with his now-traditional update on EPMA activities. To save space, I’ll skip a few items of no direct relevance to hard materials.
Coube explained that EPMA now had five Sectoral Groups, the latest being for Additive Manufacturing (EAMG). The others were for Hard Materials (EHMG), Structural Parts (ESPG), PM HIP (EPHG) and MIM (EuroMIM). Of the ten meetings in the previous year, ESPG were responsible for five and EHMG for two. Unsurprisingly, sintered carbides were not represented in the EAMG Steering Group, though experimental work on the AM of hardmetals is undoubtedly in progress in a number of locations around the world.
Training and Workshop
Figure 1: The EHMG meeting welcomed hardmetal enthusiasts from around the world. (Copyright © Kenneth JA Brookes 2013)
22
MPR November/December 2013
19 lecturers at the sell-out EPMA 2013 Summer School in Trento, Italy, had attracted 53 students. The 14th Summer School would take place in Krakow, Poland. Another highly successful EPMA training sequence is that of intensive two-day courses, the subject for 2013, in Vienna, being ‘Sintering: Advanced Processes and Materials’. Also in Vienna during April 2014, the next would cover Hard Materials, with bookings open from December 2013. Next EHMG event would be the Winterev13 Workshop in Barcelona during October. Titled ‘Fracture, Fatigue
0026-0657/13 ©2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Figure 3: Attachment of the FP7 logo indicates that a project is part of the 7th Framework Programme.
Figure 2: Joint chairman Steve Moseley welcomed delegates. (Copyright © Kenneth JA Brookes 2013)
Figure 4: Iñigo Agote, of project coordinator Tecnalia, presented details of important new research project EFFIPRO. (Copyright © Kenneth JA Brookes 2013)
and Damage Characterisation of Hard Materials Part II’, it was expected to be the last in a fascinating series that I’ve been covering for Metal Powder Report readers. The theme of the next, probably a ‘Summerev’, had apparently been decided, but not yet announced.
Legislation In July 2013 EPMA issued its 96th REACH news flash, which informs over 320 interested EPMA members by email about the latest developments of REACH and related legislation.
metal-powder.net
REACH directives cover an enormous range of chemical substances, but EPMA does its best to ensure the visibility of PM at REACH meetings. In particular, it follows issues like the status of nickel occupational exposure levels (OEL) in ESPG member sites and specific concentration limits (SCL) of ‘dangerous’ substances, which influence the classification of whole mixtures.
Club projects Open only to EPMA members, club projects are industry-defined but
coordinated by the EPMA. They are designed to deliver well-defined results on relevant R&D subjects, improve synergy between industrial and academic members, improve the visibility of the EPMA and attract new members. In the hard materials field, key results are reported at EHMG meetings open to anyone in the industry worldwide. Table 1 summarises details and status of EPMA club projects. Open to all corporate members, the EHMG project on ‘Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing of Hardmetals in the gigacycle regime’ has reached stage 2a, involving more hardmetal grades and a feasibility/reliability study of a new testing machine. FP7 (Figure 3) is the cryptic ‘Eurospeak’ name for a series of projects in which EPMA and its members provide dissemination and management skills. One such is DIRA-GREEN, aimed at developing a new inspection tool based on digital radiography. Coordinated from Budapest, it has a budget of €3 million. Based in Spain, another is EFFIPRO, subject of a special presentation by Iñigo Agote of Tecnalia (Figure 4), summarised below.
EFFIPRO With eight academic and industrial partners from six EU countries (Figure 5), the FP7 project EFFIPRO (Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process of Engineering Materials), began on 1st September 2013. Its objectives are the development and manufacturing on an industrial scale of electrical discharge consolidation (EDC) and electrical resistance sintering (ERS) equipment to develop new engineering metallic products (hard materials) with enhanced properties at lower manufacturing cost. With a total value of €5.1 million, of
November/December 2013 MPR
23
Table 1: Club projects - Three Sectoral Groups are involved, with total funding of about €380,000. Topic
Sectoral Group Contractors
Status
Overall Budget
Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing of Hardmetals in the Gigacycle Regime ‘UFTH’ Stage 1
EHMG
Completed (Oct 2010)
€31,800
Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing of Hardmetals in the Gigacycle Regime ‘UFTH’ Stage 2
EHMG
On-going (Start Sept 2011)
€70,000
Stiffness Moduli of Hardmetals ‘SMH’
EHMG
€35,000
Simulation of Fatigue Crack Growth In Hardmetals at a Mesoscopic Scale Project
EHMG
Completed (March 2011) On-going (Start Sept 2011)
Component Fatigue Strength
ESPG
On-going (Start March 2012)
€12,800
Toughness of PM HIP Steel
EPHG
On-going (Start Sept 2012)
€17,457
Hardmetal Resistivity
EHMG
On-going (Start March 2013)
€71,500
Simulation of Fatigue Crack Growth In Hardmetals at a Mesoscopic Scale Project Phase II
EHMG
On-going (Start June 2013)
€52,723
which €3.1 million will be contributed by the EC, scheduled duration is 36 months. Project coordinator is Tecnalia of San Sebastian, Spain. The basic aim of this collaborative research is given as reduction of the manufacturing process for a sintered product from hours to minutes (Figure 6), reducing the energy and effort required. The multidisciplinary approach required involves powder metallurgy, physics, chemistry, modelling, electrical and mechanical engineering, nanotechnology and hard materials. In more detail, the objectives have been expanded under a number of headings. 1. Scientific Objectives: • To understand the fundamentals of the hybrid electric current assisted sintering technology. • To develop nanostructured materials with tailored properties.
24
MPR November/December 2013
Tech. Uni, Uni. Vienna / NPL London / CEIT San Sebastian / CIEFMA Tech. Uni, Uni. Vienna / NPL London / CEIT San Sebastian / CIEFMA, UPC Barcelona NPL London IWM RWTH, Aachen / CIEFMA, UPC Barcelona IWM RWTH, Aachen (Paul Beiss) IWM RWTH, Aachen (Christoph Broeckmann) NPL London / CEIT San Sebastian IWM RWTH, Aachen / CIEFMA, UPC Barcelona / NPL London
• To study the link between the processing conditions-microstructure-mechanical properties. • To master the microstructure of parts. 2. Technical-Technological Objectives: • To develop, design and set up the new concept of hybrid electric current assisted sintering equipment: EDC+ERS. With tailor-made electrical features in order to control (i) microstructural uniformity, (ii) grain size and (iii) part homogeneity, and to enable the production of complex shapes. • To implement this knowledge-based technology in the industry at pilotplant scale. • To develop advanced hard materials, with nanosize structures (<100nm), longer durability (2 times higher) and higher toughness without loss
€35,000
of hardness; alternatively, 30% improvement in hardness and 20% improvement in transverse rupture and fracture toughness. 3. Commercial Objectives: • Implement a new PM process in the industry. • To drastically reduce the manufacturing cost of parts produced by PM technology. • To bring new materials on to the market by helping industry overcome technical difficulties in their manufacturing processes and making the European hard materials industry more competitive against Asian competitors. Various routes to market. • To substitute the use of critical elements (Co, C, W) by others with less strategic impact and lower cost.
metal-powder.net
easy implementation on an industrial scale and relatively cheap equipment. Disadvantages include heterogeneous microstructure, limited theoretical development and poor die durability. My major disappointment is that those who set up this programme have assumed (once again) that, for basic WC/Co grades, the cobalt binder can be substituted or alloyed, but the WC constituent cannot be alloyed (except for grain-growth inhibitors) but only completely substituted by Ti-base. A dedicated website should be up and running in the next month or two.
Publicity One of EPMA’s main functions is to promote powder metallurgy to designers, buyers and engineers. One of the latest publications is Spotlight on PM, in which case studies highlight PM-based improvements in product capability and performance.
Figure 5: EFFIPRO has attracted partners from six European Union countries.
• To reduce energy consumption during the process by 20%. 4. Environmental Objectives: • To complete a life-cycle analysis (LCA), closely following the guidelines of ISO14040-43 and the ILCD Handbook, that will quantify the environmental benefits of the fieldassisted sintering process for HM components; • To reduce by 25% the number of rejected parts.
• To reduce emissions of greenhouse effect gases by 40%. • To reduce materials wastage and increase the use of recycled materials by 10%. • To substitute the use of hazardous elements (Co) by safer and more environmentally friendly elements. It’s clear that the key to the entire project is the development and promotion of field-assisted sintering. Its claimed advantages include speed,
Other current PR initiatives include: • an online multimedia promotion of PM abilities and opportunities entitled ‘Design for PM’, comprising free-to-use e-learning modules; • a new EPMA website; • online papers from past EPMA conferences; • new brochures on MIM and additive manufacturing; and • dedicated end-user exhibitions in the UK and Germany.
Invited presentations
Figure 6: The EFFIPRO concept for sintered PM products.
Finally, a bonus for those attending the EHMG meeting were three invited presentations, none of which are included in the distributed Proceedings of the main PM2013 Conference. I hope to review all for Metal Powder Report readers in coming issues. • Presentation 1: Hard materials community in Sweden (Iñigo Agote Beloki, Tecnalia). • Presentation 2: Current status of thermodynamic and kinetic modelling of hardmetals and necessary data for further improvement (Karin Frisk, Swerea KIMAB, Stockholm, Sweden). • Presentation 3: PM high-speed steel versus cemented carbides (Stefan Sundin, Erasteel, Södefors, Sweden).
metal-powder.net
November/December 2013 MPR
25