- Start: 01/07/2010
- End: 31/12/2012
The project’s objective is to develop a new and short cryogenic-based thermochemical treatment for the manufacturing of high-performance aluminum extrusion dies, producing high-quality and tight-tolerance Al profiles for the engineering, construction and automotive sectors. So, a new-short-cycling deep cryogenic treatment (DCTnew) combined with 1 tempering step has been introduced after austenitization and prior to nitriding steps. The duration for the DCTnew is less than 6 hours, which is almost ¼ of the duration of standard cryogenic treatments. Besides, the conventional number of tempering cycles applied after austenitization has been shortened to only 1 tempering step. In addition, durability of dies has been increased through the utilization of PVD-coating technology (CrN, TiN or AlTiN) combined with a subsequent DCT treatment.
The main results have been the reduction of cost for manufacturing high-performance extrusion dies, together an increase of around 10-15% of extrusion-dies durability. Compared to other materials and engineering solutions, it is expected that the new extrusion dies will cost less due to a reduction in the duration of conventional heat-treatment sequences from 25-30 hours down to nearly 15 hours of the new cryogenic-based nitriding route. These benefits are due not only to the reduction of cost of maintenance operations associated to unplanned downtimes, but also to an increase of the extrusion speed due to the higher performance of dies.
**Project Funded by ERA-NET LEAD ERA Call 2010 (ESM-1851)
- Sectors: Automotive, Civil engineering, Construction, Metal mechanical
- R&D&i: Materials under extreme conditions, Multimaterial systems
- Partners: University of Trento, TECHNION, VACUUM, ONAT
- Acronym: EXTRUSIONIC
- Ambit: International
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