Oreste Castelnuovo Trafile: a success built on cemented carbide foundations

Cemented carbide is the material used to fabricate the drawing inserts, the core element of Oreste Castelnuovo's wire drawing dies. In today's article, we will focus on the genesis of this special compound, retracing its history up to the present day.

The origins of the so-called hard metal date back to 1906: Henri Moissan, a French chemist and pharmacist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was the first to experiment with this material. He discovered that mixing tungsten powders with carbon powders and heating the resulting compound in an electric arc furnace would produce a new material: cemented carbide.

The research was continued by Schroter, who, at that time, was exploring alternatives to steel to make filaments for light bulbs. After innumerable tests, he discovered a compound obtained by combining tungsten and a cementing metal (cobalt or nickel). The new material would then be sintered (at about 1500°) to increase its density and hardness.

In 1927 the Krupp family used cemented carbide for the first time to manufacture a cutting tool, renaming the compound Widia (from the German wie Diamant, which translates to "like diamond" because of its incredible hardness). From that moment, cemented carbide has become incredibly popular among tool manufacturers, including Oreste Castelnuovo Trafile.

Based in the province of Lecco (a renowned wire district in Northern Italy), the company is an established manufacturer of round, shaped, and special profile hard metal dies for ferrous materials and alloys. Every day, the corporate staff works passionately to design and manufacture innovative products to meet the demands of the ever-demanding market.

Don't wait any longer. Get in touch with Oreste Castelnuovo Trafile through the references on the side and ask for a quotation.