Development of electric resistance sintering process for the fabrication of hard metals: Processing, microstructure and mechanical properties

This work presents the development of the Electrical Resistance Sintering (ERS) process for the fabrication of hard metals. The compositions of the materials produced were WC with 6 and 10 wt% of Co. In addition to the specific characteristics of the technology, the characterization of the produced...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lagos, Miguel Ángel, Agote, Íñigo, Schubert, Thomas, Weissgaerber, Thomas, Gallardo Fuentes, José María, Montes Martos, Juan Manuel, Prakash, Leo, Andreouli, D., Oikonomou, Vivi, López, D., Calero, J. A.
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2017
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repository:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/153183
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/153183
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2017.03.005
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Electrical sintering
ERS
FAST
Cutting tools
Tungsten carbide
Description
Summary:This work presents the development of the Electrical Resistance Sintering (ERS) process for the fabrication of hard metals. The compositions of the materials produced were WC with 6 and 10 wt% of Co. In addition to the specific characteristics of the technology, the characterization of the produced parts is presented and compared to materials obtained by conventional processes. The parts produced by ERS present densities comparable to the ones obtained by conventional methods. The microstructural comparison shows a considerable grain size reduction in the ERS materials which consequently brings a hardness increase. ERS materials show similar fracture toughness to conventional ones. The very fast sintering allows performing the process without any protective atmosphere, therefore making this process very attractive for the production of materials that need to be sintered under non-oxidising environments. The total duration of the cycle, including heating, holding time and cooling is few seconds. Finally, some considerations about the scale up and possible industrialization of the technology are explained.