CARBON CONTENT INFLUENCE ON PHYSICO-MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TUNGSTEN-BASED COMPOSITES WITH MARAGING-BASED BINDER

Abstract

The effect of carbon content on physico-mechanical properties in tungsten-based composite material obtained by spark plasma sintering method was investigated in this work. Maraging steel-based composition was used as binder and contained such metals as Fe, Ni, Co, Mo, Ti. Carbon content (synthetic diamonds of 3/2 fraction) was varied from 0.1 to 0.3 wt.%. It was shown that 0.1 % wt of carbon resulted in composite durability and plasticity growth though further increase in carbon content up to 0.3% wt. resulted in composite durability growth accompanied with composite plasticity decrease. Sintering time influence (3, 5, 7 min) was investigated. It was shown that this sintering process parameter has ambiguous influence on physico-mechanical properties of obtained composite material due to cumulative effect of other parameters. Sintering time temperature in 1300–1350 °C is investigated. It was shown that 1320 °C is optimal sintering temperature. 1350 °C resulted in binder liquefaction and its components migration from die mould. Aging process of sintered material with maraging-based binder was investigated. In common case, this process resulted in durability, plasticity and hardness growth of composite material. Spark plasma sintering method application allows to minimization of tungsten grain growth. After sintering tungsten grains size remained in 1–3 μm.