Cold compaction behavior and Pressureless Sinterability of Ball Milled WC and WC/Cu Powders

Abstract

In this research, cold compaction behavior and pressureless sinterability of WC, WC-10%wtCu and WC-30%wtCu powders were investigated. WC and WC/Cu powders were milled in a planetary ball mill for 20h. The milled powders were cold compacted at 100, 200, 300 and 400 MPa pressures. The compressibility behavior of the powders was evaluated using the Heckel, Panelli-Ambrosio and Ge models. The results showed that the Panelli-Ambrosio was the preferred equation for description the cold compaction behavior of the milled WC and WC-30%wtCu powders. Also, the most accurate model for describing the compressibility of WC-10%wtCu powders was the Heckel equation. The cold compacts were sintered at 1400oC. It was found that by increasing the cold compaction pressure of powder compacts before sintering, the sinterability of WC-30%wtCu powder compacts was enhanced. However, the cold compaction magnitude was not affected significantly on the sinterability of WC and WC-10%wtCu powders. The microstructural investigations of the sintered samples by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirmed the presence of porosities at the interface of copper- tungsten carbide phases.