Infiltration Behavior Of Mechanical Alloyed 75 wt% Cu-25 wt% WC Powders Into Porous WC Compacts

Abstract

In this work infiltration behavior of mechanical alloyed 75 wt% Cu -25 wt% WC powders into porous WC compacts were studied. Owing to their ductile nature, initial Cu powders were directly added to mechanical alloying batch. On the other hand initial WC powders were high energy milled prior to mechanical alloying. Contact infiltration method was selected for densification and compacts prepared from processed powders were infiltrated into porous WC bodies. After infiltration, samples were characterized via X-Ray diffraction studies and microstructural evaluation of the samples was carried out via scanning electron microscopy observations. Based on the lack of solubility between WC and Cu it was possible to keep fine WC particles in Cu melt since solution reprecipitation controlled densification is hindered. Also microstructural characterizations via scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the transport of fine WC fraction from infiltrant to porous WC skeleton can be carried out via Cu melt flow during infiltration.

Impact of Particle Size Distribution in the Preform on Thermal Conductivity, Vickers Hardness and Tensile Strength of Copper-Infiltrated AISI H11 Tool Steel

“…Cramer et al [ 19 ] investigated a tungsten carbide-cobalt cermet composite manufactured by binder jet additive manufacturing and subsequent cobalt infiltration and proposed it for mining bits and complex-shaped cutting tools owing to its combination of high hardness and fracture toughness. Electrical contact materials exhibiting high electrical and thermal conductivity as well as good wear behavior at elevated temperatures were prepared by infiltration of copper-based infiltrants into tungsten [ 20 ] and tungsten carbide [ 21 ]. In the automobile industry, copper infiltration is used for valve seat inserts in combustion engines in order to elevate the thermal conductivity of the material [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Comparative Study of the Properties of Cu-Cr-Mo System Electrical Contact Material by Sintering and Infiltration Methods

“…However, a large difference in the melting point between metals can potentially result in a non-uniform structure during the solidification process, although they turn into a uniform liquid phase. Hence, it is technically challenging to obtain a uniform dispersion of metals using the laser melting method [8][9][10][11][12][13].…”