Effect of cobalt addition on the liquid-phase sintering of W-Cu prepared by the fluidized bed reduction method

Abstract

A new process, fluidized bed reduction (FBR) method, was applied for fabrication of uniform W-Cu sintered material. Liquid-phase sintering was carried out to obtain fully densified W-Cu composite, and the effect of cobalt addition on the sintering behavior was investigated. It was found that fully densified material could not be obtained even after sintering at 1200 °C for 4 hours in the case of 75W-25Cu, while more than 96 pct density could be obtained as soon as the sintering temperature reached 1200 °C when 0.5 wt pct cobalt was added prior to the sintering. It has been found that the wetting angle of the liquid copper is reduced significantly by the addition of cobalt, and the formation reaction of Co7W6 intermetallic compound at the surface of the tungsten powder is mainly responsible for the enhancement of the densification process.