Sandvik Intellectual Property Ab

Peter Björkhagen

Per Gustafson

Marco Zwinkels

Anders Karlsson

Gunilla Anderson

The present invention relates to a method of making cutting tools comprising a substrate having a hard phase and a binder phase, the method comprising forming green powder compacts using powder metallurgical techniques, charging the green powder compacts, placed on one or several trays, in a furnace and sintering the green powder compacts wherein the furnace comprises an insulation package, at least three individually controlled heating elements located inside the insulation package including a vertical heating element, an upper horizontal heating element arranged in an upper part of the furnace, and a lower horizontal heating element arranged in a lower part of the furnace, wherein operating the at least three heating elements such that an average controlled cooling rate from a sintering temperature down to at least a solidification temperature of the binder phase is 0.1-4.0&#xb0; C./min, and a sintering furnace operable to obtain a controlled cooling rate.

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Skarpnäck, Sweden

Peter Björkhagen