Highly dense, inexpensive composites via melt infiltration of Ni into WC/Fe preforms

Corson L. Cramer, Alexander D. Preston, Amy M. Elliott, Richard A. Lowden

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Traditionally, WC-based composites use Co as the metal binder phase to consolidate using liquid-phase sintering with a small percentage of Co, but a potentially lower cost binder phase can be made with a different approach when using large amount of metal binder phase. FeNi as a metal binder material is much cheaper than Co. WC can be liquid-phase sintered and melt infiltrated with FeNi, but by making FeNi in situ, costs lower even further. Composites of WC-(Fe-Ni) were made by first pressing a mixture of WC and Fe powders and subsequently melt infiltrating Ni in an amount corresponding to less volume than the porosity of the preform to ensure high WC content. The research objective was to make highly dense composites via melt infiltration with a low-cost metal binder phase in situ. This method has the potential to make fully dense composites, rather than hardmetals, with suitable properties at lower costs. The density and hardness are 97.4%TD and 6.72 GPa, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)255-258
Number of pages4
JournalInternational Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials
Volume82
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2019

Funding

The authors would like to thank Olivia Shafer for editing assistance. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy , Office of Advanced Manufacturing , under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725 .

Keywords

  • Cermet composites
  • Pressureless melt infiltration
  • WC-FeNi

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