Sandvik rewards best-selling cemented carbide development team
May 2, 2018
The development of a cemented carbide grade for steel milling, designed to prolong insert tool life, has led to the award of Sandvik’s 2018 ‘Wilhelm Haglund Medal to the Product Developer of the Year’ to a team of scientist at Sandvik Coromant. Karin Andersson, Björn Ericsson, Emmanuelle Göthelid and Marie Pettersson were presented with the medal at 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,” stated Emmanuelle Göthelid. “This recognition highlights the importance of material and process development along with systematic work in grade development for success in metal cutting.”
The cemented carbide grade that led to the win for Göthelid and her colleagues is known as GC 1130 and was developed for steel milling. 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 (Physical Vapour Deposition) grades.
The 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.
“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,” added Sandvik’s President and CEO Björn Rosengren.