Abstract

Sintering behavior of nanostructured(NS) W-Cu powders prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) was investigated as a function of sintering temperature. MA NS W-2owt%Cu and W-3owt%Cu composite powders with the crystal size of 20-30 nm were annealed at 900°C, and thermal characteristics of those powders were investigated by DSC. Sintering behavior of MA NS W-Cu composite powders was investigated during the solid-state sintering and the Cu-liquid phase sintering. The new nanosintering phenonenon of MA W-Cu powders at solid-state sintering temperature was suggested to explain the W-grain growth in the inside of MA powders. The sintering densification of MA NS W-Cu powders was enhanced at Cu melting temperature by arrangement of MA powders, i.e., the first rearrangement of MA powders was occurred, and then the rearrangement of W-grains in the sintered parts was also took place during liquid-phase sintering, i.e., the second rearrangement was happened. Due to the double rearrangement process of MA NS W-Cu powders, the high sintered density with more than 96%o was obtained and the fine and high homogeneous state of W and Cu phases was achieved by sintering at 1200 °C.