The reduction behavior of WO3 and CuO powder mixture has been studied by using thermo-gravimetric(TG), X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopic analyses. The powder mixture was manufactured by ball-milling. It was found that W coated W-Cu composite powders were formed when reducing the powder mixture under hydrogen atmosphere. The following reduction steps are suggested as a mechanism for the formation of W coated W-Cu composite powders: with increasing temperature, Cu is initially reduced from CuO and the reduction reactions of WO3 to WO2 via WO2.9 and WO2.72 are followed. The gas phase WO2(OH)2 is formed by the reaction of the WO2 and water vapor, and then WO2(OH)2 diffuses toward Cu surface and deposits on it as W by reducing reaction with environmental hydrogen gas. The formation mechanism of W coated W-Cu composite powders involving the gas phase transportation reaction has been confirmed by the model experiment conducted by using Cu plate and WO3 powder.

This paper focuses on the variations of static and dynamic properties of tungsten heavy alloy with heat treatment. The matrix phase of 93W-4.9Ni-2.1Fe (weight percent) has been penetrated into W/W grain boundaries during a cyclic heat treatment which consists of repeated isothermal holdings at 1150 °C and water quenching between them. By applying the cyclic heat treatment, the impact energy of tungsten heavy alloy is increased about three times from 57 to 170 J. When the tungsten heavy alloy is cyclically heat treated at 1150 °C and then re-sintered at 1485 °C, W/matrix interface is changed from round to undulated shape. The irregularity of the interface is increased with increasing the number of heat treatment cycles. From the measurement of the residual stress of W grains by X-ray diffraction, it is found that the irregularity of the interface is closely related with strain energy stemmed from the difference of thermal expansion coefficient between W particles and matrix phase. From dynamic ballistic test, it is found that the tungsten heavy alloy with undulated W grains forms many narrow fracture bands which are preferential for the self sharpening effect, thus, for the improvement of the penetration performance.

A new tungsten heavy alloy with hybrid structure was manufactured for the kinetic energy penetrator. The tungsten heavy alloy is composed of two parts: core region is molybdenum added heavy alloy to promote the self-sharpening; outer part encompassing the core is conventional heavy alloy to sustain severe load in a muzzle during firing. The fracture surfaces of the specimen is observed after ballistic tests. The core region revealed brittle behavior with W/W inter-granular fracture which activates self-sharpening. On the other hand, outer part exhibited conventional ductile fracture mode. From ballistic test, it was found that the penetration performance of the hybrid structure tungsten heavy alloy is higher than that of conventional heavy alloy. This heavy alloy is thought to be very useful for the penetrator in the near future.

An infiltration technique using W-Cu composite powder has been developed to enhance microstructural uniformity of W-Cu pseudo-alloy. W-Cu composite powder, manufactured by reduction from WO3 and CuO powder mixtures, were blended with W powder and then cold isostatically pressed into a cylindrical bar under 150 MPa. The pressed samples were pre-sintered at 1300 oC for 1 hour under hydrogen to make a skeleton structure. This skeleton structure was more homogeneous than that formed by using W and Cu powder mixtures. The skeleton structures were infiltrated with Cu under hydrogen atmosphere. The infiltrated W-Cu pseudo-alloy showed homogeneous microstructure without Cu rich region.

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