Methods of compacting nanostructured tungsten–cobalt alloys from Nanopowders obtained by plasma chemical synthesis

Abstract

The paper summarizes the experience of using traditional and modern methods of sintering WC–Co nanopowders obtained by plasma chemical synthesis. A comparative analysis of structure formation processes occurring at sintering WC–Co nanopowders in a quasi-steady and high-speed heating is carried out. It is shown that the basic regularities of structure evolution during sintering are rather general in nature and are similar both to conventional vacuum sintering and to high-energy compaction methods. It was established that, under high-speed heating conditions, a significant contribution to the acceleration of the sintering of nanopowder materials at low temperatures is made not only by a small grain size but also the process of grainboundary diffusion. It is shown that the samples of hard alloys sintered from tungsten carbide nanopowders produced by plasma chemical synthesis have significantly higher hardness and fracture toughness than those produced using conventional synthesis techniques and compacting. Using the technology of plasma chemical synthesis and spark plasma sintering, nanostructured WC and WC–Co samples with significantly better mechanical properties (hardness, fracture toughness) than those of conventional fine materials were obtained.