Abstract

A radically new approach to the in situ synthesis of the consituent phases of a composite structure has enabled the production of a new WC/Co materials with an ultrafine microstructure. The process for synthesizing nanophase WC/Co powders consists of spray drying from solution to form a homogeneous precursor powder, and thermochemical conversion of the precursor powder to the nanophase WC/Co powder. Near theoretical density of pure nanophase WC-10 wt%Co has been obtained in only 30 sec at 1400°C. But WC particles were grown up very rapidly with longer sintering time to get full density. To overcome coarsening of WC particle during sintering, VC, TaC and VC/TaC were used as the grain growth inhibitor with different amount respectively. VC/TaC doped WC-10 wt%Co was shown superior hardness and TRS and microstructure was maintained ultrafine scale (average WC size is less than 0.1 µtextrmm).