Wire drawing Die Materials Overview

Polycrystalline Diamond:

• Excels in life expectancy, wear resistance of diamond, shock resistance of carbide, high availability, cost effectiveness
• Higher drawing force, smaller fines requires more filtration, may be damaged by temperatures above 700ºC, wire surface condition less than from natural diamond.

Synthetic Single Crystal:

• Consistently uniform material, gives excellent wire surface, high thermal conductivity, predictable wear schedule, uniform wear pattern gives longer life expectancy.
• Larger size ranges are still costly at this time.

Natural Diamonds:

• Wear resistance, gives excellent wire surface, high thermal conductivity, longer life expectancy. so the diamond die is suit for it.
• Susceptible to fractures from shock or wear, limited availability in required high quality and quantity, constantly escalating price.

Tungsten Carbide:

• Lowest cost, shock resistance, ease of production, large sizes available.
• Lower life expectancy.