Development of manufacturing technology on WC–Co hardmetals

Abstract

Hardmetals are tungsten carbide (WC)-based composites, which are made of WC as a hard phase and transition metals such as Co, Fe, or/and Ni as ductile binder matrices. Their properties can be mainly tailored through the grain sizes of the sintered carbides and the amount of metallic binder. As successful tool materials, hardmetals are widely applied in metal cutting, wear applications, chipless forming, stoneworking, wood, and plastic working. In 2017, about two-thirds of tungsten consumption (including recycled materials) were produced for hardmetals in the world. This paper briefly introduces the development of manufacturing technology on WC-Co hardmetals from three aspects: powder preparation, bulk densification, and performance characterization. Two special WC-Co hardmetals are also described: cobalt-enrichment zone (CEZ) hardmetals, and binderless hardmetals. Furthermore, the development prospects for manufacturing techniques of hardmetals are also presented in the end. Keywords Hardmetal • Ultrafine WC powder • Ultrafine cobalt powder • Extrusion press • Liquid sintering • Cobaltenrichment zone hardmetal • Binderless hardmetal 2 Powder preparation techniques Although WC-Co hardmetals can be made directly with mixing and reactive sintering of tungsten, carbon, and cobalt powders [6], the most commonly used method for preparing Tungsten www.springer.com/42864

Development of robust surfaces for harsh service environments from the perspective of phase formation and transformation

“…WC-Co-based cemented carbides have been widely used as tool materials in cutting, milling, turning and drilling applications since they were first developed in the 1920s [84] . Among the different types of cemented ) and (B) area fraction (A γ'-area fraction ) of γ' phase in the Co-V-Ta alloy annealed at 800 °C for 600 h, as predicted using machine learning, with the γ and γ' phase boundaries demarcated in the isothermal section of the Co-V-Ta system at 800 °C established using the CALPHAD approach.…”

“…carbides, ultrafine grain WC-Co with enhanced mechanical properties has received significant attention from both academia and industry [84,85] . The incorporation of a grain growth inhibitor, for example, Cr 3 C 2 , VC, NbC or TaC, is a viable method to fabricate cemented carbides with refined WC particles [86] .…”

Fabrication of tungsten oxide powder from WC–Co cemented carbide scraps by oxidation behaviour

“…Thus, particle and phase control of the powder are important factors. To produce high-quality cemented carbide powder in a resource-efficient manner, it is necessary to develop a process that enables the efficient and complete oxidation of cemented carbide scrap [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Effects of WC-Co reinforced Ni-based alloy by laser melting deposition: Wear resistance and corrosion resistance*

“…[8][9][10] The WC-Co is one of the widely used hard particles due to its high hardness and excellent mechanical properties. [11][12][13] Up to now, many researchers have paid much attention to WC-Co reinforced composite coatings. Krishna et al [14] had a conclusion that the wear rate of Al7075-6-wt% WC-Co cermet based composite is lower than that of the unreinforced Al7075 alloy in all applied conditions.…”