Use of Ti in hard metal alloys – Part I: structural and microstructural analysis

Abstract

AbstractNanosized WC, and binders Co, Ti and Ti‐Co, are used to process hardmetals. Titanium (Ti) was proposed to reduce and even replace the Co in these composites, verifying the effectiveness of the new binders. Samples of nanosized WC with 10 wt% Co, 9 wt% WC 1 wt% Ti – Co, WC‐10 wt% Ti were cold compacted at 200 MPa and sintered at 1500°C during 1 hour under vacuum of 10–2 mbar for the processing of hardmetal were performed. The structural characterization by X‐ray diffraction and microstructure by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and EDS microanalysis of the sintered material. We observed the presence of the W2C phase in the sintered samples, and Co3W phases in the samples with Co content and a good distribution of binder phase, leading to formation of small “pool” of Co and Ti and small porosity and well distributed. It was proved that using Ti as binder phase, the neta phase formation was avoided.