A MULTIPARAMETRIC AND MULTICRITERIA SOFTWARE TO EVALUATE THE DESIGN OF ULTRA-HARD METAL ALLOYS

Objective: Wear resistance is frequently required in products that demand a relatively long lifespan, e.g., cutting tools, bearings, bushings, sleeves, etc. In view of this, ultra-hard metal alloys (UHMAs) are often employed to withstand longer working cycles and last longer. In order to design UHMAs, one of the existing approaches is the parametric. However, each metal alloy design is based on a different set of parameters by researchers, what makes difficult to understand why that specific set of parameters was chosen, and which of them to select for a future design. Methods: Therefore, based on the parametric approach, in this paper we present a software developed by the authors, called DIAMOY 2.0, which employs the most commonly applied twenty parameters and five criteria in the alloy design process. DIAMOY 2.0 was coded in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0® and turned into a Windows® application. Results: The software was validated through the comparison with two UHMAs with a maximum relative error of 1.923% for one UHMA, and 3.183% for the other UHMA. Conclusions: The main contributions of this software refer to: (a) the organization of the set of the most commonly reported parameters and criteria into a single application, which facilitates the design process evaluation; (b) operation in a faster manner to ease the decision making process; (c) portability, as it can be operated in any Windows®-based device.