Materials

The Vibenite® materials

VBN Components has created a range of 3D printed, extremely hard, wear and heat resistant metals, to be used for components in demanding applications. We can produce your components in-house, according to your 3D CAD drawing, or provide you with a licence to produce in your own premises.

The Vibenite® materials share several benefits. Thanks to the additive manufacturing process, you have the chance to design complex geometries, combine several parts into one, add channels for media, reduce weight, or add other features to your component without any soft machining. You can also look forward to fast product development since your ideas can be easily implemented by simply creating a new 3D CAD drawing! The materials are produced from gas atomised metal powder and are therefore classified as powder metallurgy (PM) materials. The method is called AM-HSS™.

All Vibenite® materials are extremely wear resistant and hard due to the ultrafine and uniform microstructure. The hardness and toughness can be tailored by the heat-treating steps in individual ranges. The high performance combined with less unnecessary material use leads to long lifetime, high productivity, and cost savings.

Order our datasheets if you want to know more about each Vibenite® material. We will help you choose the optimal Vibenite® material for your component!

Benefits:

Hardness of Vibenite® materials compared to H13, a common tool steel:

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Hardness comparison of Vibenite® materials to other materials produced by additive manufacturing powder bed technologies:

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Vibenite® 130

Vibenite® 130 is under development and will be the toughest Vibenite® alloy. It is an additive manufacturing grade similar to the most common tool steel grade H13, but with improved properties. It possesses high toughness with a hardness range of 48–58 HRC, according to your choice. This alloy will be perfect if you have a high demand on toughness and ductility, but still want excellent wear resistant properties and design freedom. It is suitable for many general applications, but also for cold work, powder pressing, blanking, extrusion and plastics processing. The alloy also performs well in hot works such as hot stamping, extrusion dies and similar components.

Vibenite® 150

A multi-purpose wear-resistant PM steel with a high level of toughness and fatigue resistance. It has a fine-grained Fe matrix and a hardness of approximately 58–64 HRC (600–780 HV). It works well for functional prototypes, parts difficult to machine, tool holders, cold work applications that place demands on both wear resistance and toughness, plastic materials processing tools and wear parts.

Vibenite® 280

Vibenite® 280 is an extremely wear and heat-resistant PM material, especially suitable for cutting applications such as gear hobs, broaches, shaper cutters and wear parts, or as a hard, heat-resistant substrate material for PVD coatings. The fine microstructure with high volume of fine, well-dispersed carbides results in a high toughness. Its hardness is in the range of approximately 63–70 HRC (780–1000 HV). It has proven to raise production capacity for industrial tools, for instance in engine production. Extreme erosive resistance has also been noted in customer applications.

Vibenite® 290

The hardest commercially-available steel type in the world: possible to harden up to approx. 72 HRC. Improve your existing HSS applications that need higher hot hardness or higher abrasion resistance. Vibenite® 290’s high Co content gives a very heat-resistant hard alloy, while its high quantity of carbide formers generates extreme levels of carbides. The result is outstanding wear resistance with an exceptional combination of toughness and hardness. The unique composition of Vibenite® 290 results in a material perfect for metal-cutting tool applications such as gear-cutting hobs, power-skiving cutters, shaper cutters and dry-cutting applications.

Vibenite® 350

This stainless PM steel is well suited to high-wear applications that need stainless properties, such as plastic processing tools (extrusions and injection tool parts, segments for segment screws), pumps and valve rings. Its high hardness of approximately 60 HRC (680–700 HV) and high chromium content provide good wear and corrosion properties and it is ideally suited to products such as pump impellers or valves, where there is a requirement for both complex shapes and high performance. These types of alloys are normally extremely difficult to machine.

Vibenite® 480

Vibenite® 480 is a patented cemented carbide-type cobalt-chromium (CoCr) based alloy with very high levels of tungsten (W) and carbon (C). It is a new material-type with excellent hardness (67 or 70 HRC) all the way through and toughness, belonging to a group called hybrid carbides. The alloy has supreme wear resistance and hot hardness, thanks to the high carbide content. It is a very temperature-stable material, which means that no phase transformation occurs at high application temperatures. Vibenite® 480 is a good choice for applications where steel is normally used, but where replacing it with hardmetal would increase production efficiency, as well as towards hardmetal applications with complex geometry.

The Vibenite® material choice chart

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