The development of a steel milling grade designed to give the customer a long insert tool life and stable production led to the award of the “Wilhelm Haglund Medal to the Product Developer of the Year” in 2018 to Karin Andersson, Björn Ericsson, Emmanuelle Göthelid and Marie Pettersson from Sandvik Coromant. The medal was presented in conjunction with Sandvik’s 2018 Annual General Meeting.
“It´s a great honour for us. Words can´t describe the feeling of being chosen for this year’s Wilhelm Haglund medal, but unreality and pride are closest to hand, given the high level of the other nominated products”, says Emmanuelle Göthelid.
The cemented carbide grade that led to the win for Emmanuelle Göthelid and her colleagues is called GC 1130, is developed for steel milling and has a coating using the PVD-technique (Physical Vapour Deposition).
“Innovation and constant product development are crucial for our continued success. The fact that GC 1130 is about to be the best selling cemented carbide grade in Sandvik Coromant’s product family for mills is a tangible example of the link between investments in innovation and business benefits”, says Sandvik’s President and CEO Björn Rosengren.
The combination of the cemented carbide, coating, preparation and finishing is what leads to the characteristics of a cemented carbide grade and the challenge is to find the right balance between the components.
The GC 1130 uses a fine-grained cemented carbide with a high content of chrome together with a layer made with Zertivo™, Sandvik’s unique production technology for PVD grades. This technology enables increased control over the manufacturing process, which is then carefully adapted to the grade-specific requirements. The result is a more stable product with longer cutting life, for increased customer benefit.
“This recognition highlights the importance of material and process development along with systematic work in grade development for success in metal cutting”, says Emmanuelle Göthelid.
