Burr problem when cutting tungsten wire

[koza19]

We are manufacturing a burner mount support out of 0.020" tungsten wire. We are cutting the material off the machine against a quill. The quill and cutoff tool is made of Tungsten Carbide 10% Cobalt. Once each part is cutoff we are finding a small burr about .003" to .005". We used Tungsten Carbide 15% cobalt and had massive tool wear and we splitting the wire. We are running about 2,500 pcs per hr. I was wondering if their is a tool steel specially made to cut tungsten wire burr free? If not I will need to invest in a different cutoff system on our machine which is big $.

 

[unclesyd]

Though not directly involved in the process where we used Tungsten wire I do remember that they had problems with the degree of anneal on the smaller wires. For our use we wanted a full anneal. A partially annealed wire should cut better.
Splitting is a inherent defect of the W wire manufacturing process. You can get wire with a low split count, for lack of words. Check the burr on your cut and see if it's a split in the wire.

Are you using pure W or WK (potassium) wire?

 

[koza19]

We are using pure W wire which is full annealed. I will check one of the parts to see what type of burr it is.

thanks for the help

 

[btrueblood]

Tungsten wire almost always splits when bent or cut, regardless of the degree of anneal - you have to heat it to red heat (900 F or more) before it has any ductility to speak of. We always cut it with a grinding wheel (Dremel cut off wheel) to avoid splits as much as possible. W/3Re has a bit more ductility if you need it.