WC-Co hard metals are an important class of hard materials of which structural parts and tools are manufactured. The failure behaviour of hard metals is defect-controlled, i.e. the size of the material inhomogeneities, that they contain like all other materials, is closely linked to their fracture behaviour.

To minimize the size and frequency of defects in hard metals, MCL does research on improvement of manufacturing technologies and surface preparation techniques. This is done in close cooperation with numerous companies and partners from academia such as the Erich Schmid Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Metal Physics and the Institute of Structural and Functional Ceramics – both part of the Montanuniversität Leoben.