Sintered tungsten carbide components process

I. Raw Material Preparation

Mixing Ratio

• Mix tungsten carbide (WC) powders with metal binders such as cobalt (Co) according to the desired hardness, toughness, and application-specific requirements. The cobalt content typically ranges from 3% to 25%.
• Add trace amounts of tantalum (TaC), titanium (TiC), and niobium (NbC) to produce different types of alloy metals.

Ball Milling

• Utilize a wet ball milling process (using alcohol or acetone as the medium) for 24-48 hours to refine the powder particle size to 0.5-2.0 μm, ensuring uniform mixing.
• After ball milling, use centrifugal separation to remove the solvent, obtaining well-flowing mixed tungsten carbide powders.

Drying and Granulation

• Use spray drying to remove residual solvents and sieve out agglomerated particles, obtaining tungsten carbide raw material powders with uniform particle size distribution.

II. Forming Process

Pressing

• Press powders into tungsten carbide component green compacts under a pressure of 200-400 MPa, achieving a green compact density of 50%-60% of the theoretical density.
• Additives like paraffin and polyethylene glycol (PEG) can be added during forming to improve demolding performance; they are removed through pre-sintering.

Cold Isostatic Pressing (CIP)

• Use cold isostatic pressing on complex-shaped tungsten carbide components, applying pressure of 100-300 MPa to improve compact density and uniformity.

III. Sintering Process

The sintering process for tungsten carbide components is divided into four stages, with precise temperature and time control required:

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IV. Innovative Sintering Technologies for Tungsten Carbide Components

Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS)

• Rapid heating at 100-200°C/min reduces sintering time to 10-30 minutes, with grain sizes controlled below 1 μm.

Nanocomposite Sintering

• Use high-entropy alloys (e.g., Al₀.5CoCrFeNiTi₀.5) as the bonding phase, resulting in triangular prismatic WC grains and hardness above 2500 HV.

V. Correlation Between Key Parameters and Performance

Notes:

• The sintering process for tungsten carbide components requires parameter adjustments based on product type (tools, molds, wear-resistant parts) and optimization via orthogonal experiments.
• Strict control of hydrogen purity (≥99.995%) and vacuum levels (≤10⁻² Pa) is essential during production to avoid contamination.