Fracture toughness of cemented carbides obtained by electrical resistance sintering

The unique combination of hardness, toughness and wear resistance exhibited by WC-Co cemented carbides (hardmetals) has made them a preeminent material choice for extremely demanding applications, such as metal cutting/forming tools or mining bits, in which improved and consistent performance togeth...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Astacio López, Raquel, Gallardo Fuentes, José María, Cintas Físico, Jesús, Montes Martos, Juan Manuel, Gómez Cuevas, Francisco de Paula, Prakash, Leo, Torres Hernández, Yadir
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/93615
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/93615
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2019.02.002
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Electrical resistance sintering
Cemented carbides
Hardmetal
Fracture toughness
Descripción
Sumario:The unique combination of hardness, toughness and wear resistance exhibited by WC-Co cemented carbides (hardmetals) has made them a preeminent material choice for extremely demanding applications, such as metal cutting/forming tools or mining bits, in which improved and consistent performance together with high reliability are required. The high fracture toughness values exhibited by hardmetals are mainly due to ductile ligament bridging and crack deflection (intrinsic to carbides). In this work two WC-Co grades obtained by using the electric resistance sintering technique are studied. The relationships between the process parameters (cobalt volume fraction, sintering current and time, die materials, etc.), the microstructural characteristics (porosity, cobalt volume fraction, carbide grain size, binder thickness and carbide contiguity) and mechanical properties (Vickers hardness and fracture toughness) are established and discussed. Also the presence of microstructural anisotropy and residual stresses is studied. The sintering process at 7 kA, 600 ms and 100 MPa, in an alumina die, followed by a treatment of residual stress relief (800 °C, 2 h in high vacuum), allows to obtain WC-Co pellets with the best balance between an homogeneous microstructure and mechanical behaviour.