Wire drawing is a manufacturing process in which metal rods or wires are drawn through a single or a series of dies, reducing the wire cross-section and enhancing the mechanical properties of the wire. The tribological conditions in wire drawing are quite extreme and high friction between the wire and the die results in an increased die temperature. Previous studies have shown that by reducing the die temperature the lifetime of the die increases and thus efficient cooling of the die is of high importance.
Additive manufacturing enables fabrication of tools with advanced conformal cooling channels with high cooling efficiency. This technique may, therefore, be of high importance in the design of the cooling system of drawing dies. In the present study, the effect of conformal cooling design of die holder on the die temperature, and thus die performance, was investigated. A die holder was manufactured by means of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) in an EOS M290 machine using atomized corrosion resistant steel (Corrax). The cooling efficiency of the manufactured tool holder was evaluated in an industrial wire drawing process and further analysed using FEM modelling. This study shows promising results on improved cooling efficiency for die holder designed and manufactured by additive manufacturing.