Morgan Advanced Materials, a global leader in the development and application of advanced material technologies, has developed a new ceramic extrusion die, which enables engineers to significantly reduce costs and issues associated with poor die life, dimensional control, inferior surface finish, and high scrap rates.
Morgan has launched its Nilcra® Zirconia TS Grade, a high performance, hot extrusion die, that is manufactured using advanced ceramic materials specially designed for use within copper and brass extrusion. The solution offers a more efficient alternative to conventional metal-based dies, and is available as an insert only, or as a ready-to-use assembly shrink fitted within a steel retainer.
An ultra-tough Mg-PSZ Zirconia, Nilcra® Zirconia TS Grade has been proven by Morgan to provide up to a 30 times lifetime increase when compared to alternative metal dies, which typically only last for 5-10 pushes. This significantly reduces downtime costs caused when engineers have to stop the extrusion process and re-place a convention die. Additionally, due to the unique properties of Nilcra® Zirconia, the ceramic die is not susceptible to creep at elevated temperatures enabling product size to be maintained throughout the life of the die.
Morgan’s Research and Development team developed the Nilcra® Zirconia TS grade solution as an alternative die material with very low thermal conductivity, enabling reduced heat transfer from the extruded product to the die body and holder. The material also has superior hardness and wear resistance properties that maintain a high level of surface finish on extruded product.
We wanted to develop a material that not only helps our customer to eliminate production downtime associated with poor die life, but also reduces their overall process costs by providing superior product quality with reduced scrap rates. The Nilcra® Zirconia TS Grade meets these key objectives and, thanks to its unique material characteristics, will enable engineers to benefit from reduced downtime, increased process efficiency, and higher yields.
Tim Hazlehurst, Senior Sales Engineer, at Morgan Advanced Materials
For more information on Morgan’s copper and brass extrusion dies, please visit: www.morgantechnicalceramics.com/copper-die