Abstract: A hard metal granulate is produced by wet milling and spray drying in a spray tower using pure water as the liquid phase. The spray tower is configured and operated in such a way that a ratio of the quantity of water added via the slurry (in liters per hour) to tower volume (in m3) is between 0.5 and 1.8 and in that a maximum of 0.17 kg of slurry is atomized per m3 of incoming drying gas. The slurry has a solid particle concentration within a range of 65-85% by weight. Under these conditions, the addition of a water-soluble, long-chain polyglycol to the slurry prior to spraying previously required in order to prevent oxidation of the hard metal granulate is no longer necessary.

Abstract: A hard metal grade powder is produced from hard material, metal binder, and non-water-soluble pressing aid components, by forming a slurry containing the components and pure water as a liquid phase and then drying the slurry. Here, the hard material and metal binder components are first milled in water, to form a slurry. Then the pressing aid components are added to the slurry in the form of an emulsion produced with the aid of an emulsifier with the addition of water.