A review of fabrication and properties of spark plasma sintered tungsten carbide based advanced composites

Abstract

The high-performance tool materials have been inevitably used for most of the cutting tool applications where high reliability and difficult to cut materials are of major demand. The cemented carbides and its composites offer an excellent combination of the properties where it can be used for tool materials due to its high wear resistance, high hardness at elevated temperatures, and considerable fracture toughness. However to obtain optimum values of mechanical properties and uniformly distributed ultrafine grains, a number of new fabrication techniques, alteration in the content of cemented carbide composition, and variation in the parameters of fabrication process have been employed. This review paper will come in handy for researchers and scientists working on advanced cemented carbides and spark plasma sintering as it overviews the recent work done on tungsten carbide composites using the novel spark plasma sintering technique considering different process parameters in order to achieve ultrafine microstructures of sintered specimens, enhanced mechanical properties of composites in addition to energy as well as time saving considerations. The thorough review of various research papers revealed that the parameters of the sintering (sintering temperature, applied pressure, surrounding environment), additives in sintering (both content and composition), reinforcement of cemented carbide with other materials, nano-filler/whisker addition, partial or complete removal of metallic phase from the cemented carbide affect the properties of sintered specimens and their calculated as well as optimum setting can provide an excellent combination of properties desired in cutting tool operations.

Effect of Metal Elements on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ultrafine Cemented Carbide Prepared by SPS

“…Adopting rapid sintering technology and adding grain growth inhibitors (GGIs) are effective methods to prepare ultrafine cemented carbides. Rapid sintering methods included spark plasma sintering (SPS) [13,14], microwave sintering [15,16], selective laser sintering [17,18], high-frequency induction sintering [19,20], and electric heating methods [21][22][23]. Spark plasma sintering has a special sintering mechanism [24][25][26][27], which can effectively reduce the sintering temperature, shorten the sintering time, and improve the degree of densification of the specimen.…”

Experimental investigation on fabrication, characterization and properties of spark plasma sintered alumina-based tungsten carbide composites reinforced by carbon nanotubes

“…Cemented carbides have been used for a variety of applications in engineering domains such as cutting tools, drilling tools, mining equipment, turning, armour-piercing shells, planning, wear-resisting components and wire drawing equipment for their excellent hardness, high thermal and chemical stability at elevated temperatures, better corrosion resistance and high melting points. [1][2][3] However the cemented carbides have a few poor properties such as less fracture toughness, weak shock resistance and less ductility as compared to other ceramic materials. Hence a metallic binder like cobalt, nickel and chromium is generally added to overcome these limitations.…”