Key idea and Objectives
- Main advantage of the technology is the energy efficiency as only the powder is heated during few seconds.
- Another important advantage of the technology is the flexibility in the composition of the metal binder in diamond tools. The technology can be used with iron-based binders that are difficult to process by conventional sintering due the week interface between diamond and metal. This could open the possibility of working with Fe based binders instead of Co based ones (cobalt is a CRITICAL material for the EU).
- Improved densification obtained will reduce the dust generation of brake pads.
ENERFAST process will be developed for two use cases: metal diamond segments for DELLAS and friction materials (brake pads) for FRENOTECNICA
Metal-diamond tools are well established in the mining sector for the cutting of granite, marble, and others. These tools consist of two main elements, the steel core and the segments based on diamond particles surrounded by a metal matrix. Friction materials (like brake pads) are metal based composites obtained by Powder Metallurgy. In this case semi-metallic brake pads will be developed.
Both use cases are fabricated by hot pressing or using the conventional PM process based on cold pressing and sintering. For high quality products that require high density, hot pressing is the most suitable conventional method. However, costs of processing are very high due to the cost of the graphite tooling and the high energy consumption.
DELLAS and FRENOTECNICA will stablish the requirements and will perform the final validation the technology. They will be early adopters of the new processing method improving flexibility and efficiency.
