Effect of heating rate on the microwave sintered W–Ni–Fe heavy alloys

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of heating rate on the microwave sintered 90W–7Ni–3Fe heavy alloys was investigated, with the heating rate in the range from 10 to 112 °C/min. When the alloys were sintered at the heating rate from 20 to 105 °C/min, they exhibit excellent properties with the relative density over 99%, tensile strength between 850 and 922 MPa and elongation around 20%. It has been shown that a faster heating rate results in smaller W grain size and larger W–W contiguity. The heating rate of 80 °C/min has the best combination of the microstructure and mechanical performance. Sintering under an optimized condition leads to the enhanced mechanical properties of 1020 MPa in tensile strength and 21% in elongation.