Performance in Innovation - Methodology development for targeted Alloy Design in the Smallest Quantities

A significant reduction in the alloy development time for sophisticated wire solutions with simultaneous testing of very small quantities (in the kilogram range) in hot forming in the wire rolling mill – these are the advantages with which the optimized and reproducible method for targeted alloy design for wire solutions in the Wire Technical Centre can boast.

A prototype, so to speak, that undergoes rolling under real conditions in the wire rod rolling mill and in subsequent process steps in our drawing facilities.

This method brings high flexibility and short reaction times in alloy design – for your demanding wire applications.

How is that possible? Cooperation across the entire metallurgy group (voestalpine Böhler Welding, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz, voestalpine Wire Technology and the Competence Center Welding of voestalpine Railway Systems) provided the basis and the necessary internal know-how to accomplish such feats.

Starting from METLAB, the world's only metallurgy laboratory, which with the vacuum induction melting (VIM) plant constitutes the heart of flexible alloy development and offers the possibility of producing small melts and near-production melts, new methodological expertise developed in targeted alloy design for optimized wire solutions.

Coordinated by our internal experts in the Wire Technical Centre, a multi-layer welding process was first adopted to weld VIM blocks with approx. 50kg  from METLAB onto a carrier billet. This process was subsequently optimized for downstream forming in the wire rolling mill. Here, it was necessary to carry out numerous investigations with regard to weld seam preparation and filler materials. The optimal variants with regard to massive hot forming in the wire rolling mill were finally filtered out and then successfully tested several times.