Analysis of Milling Efficiency of the Vanadis^® 8 Tool Steel with Additions of Vanadium and Molybdenum Carbides

Abstract

The Vanadis^® 8 is a tool steel used in the manufacture of dies, punches and tools. It has a high carbon content combined with chromium, molybdenum and vanadium, and presents good performance in its mechanical properties. Usually, its chips obtained by machining are sold to companies that use remelting. However, this technique is considered expensive and harmful to the environment. Therefore, this work aimed to analyze the efficiency of the addition of vanadium carbide (VC) and molybdenum carbide (Mo₂C) in the high energy ball milling of the Vanadis^® 8 steel. Microstructural analysis were performed in the pure steel and with 3% of VC and Mo₂C additions. The milling parameters used were: speed of 350 rpm, ball-to-powder weight ratio of 15:1 and times of 4, 8 and 12 hours. The results indicated that the Vanadis^® 8 steel milled with VC presented the best microstructural results in all of the conducted tests.

Keywords:
Vanadis^® 8 Tool Steel; Carbides; High Energy Ball Milling; Powder Metallurgy