Cemented carbide molds are used in high-pressure closed die forging, and in high-pressure punch forging when sharp edges are required. These cemented carbide molds have conventionally been manufactured by sinker EDM and polishing with diamond abrasives. Molds formed by EDM, however, are plagued by short lifetimes due to EDM cracks. There is also a demand for increased precision, creating a growing need for manufacture by direct cutting. The main obstacle to the direct cutting of comparatively large cold-forging cemented carbide molds, for which the need is greatest, has been the high tooling cost. Here,this issue is addressed with respect to the direct cutting（milling）of a cemented carbide mold with a diameter of about 100 mm. Because of the high tooling cost, tools were developed in-house, starting from the basics. Parameter design was employed and many control factors were tested. When the results were applied in a trial manufacturing run, molded products of hitherto unachieved quality were obtained. This accomplishment was brought about by an integrated organization in which industry, academia, and government were given clearly defined goals and each party performed a different task in pursuit of its goal.
