abstract
Growing demands for new composites showing high performance and enlarging fields of application have drawn a great interest on hard metal industry. In this work, new composites of WC stainless steel AISI 304 (SS) binder, containing Fe, Cr and Ni as main elements have been developed and their mechanical behavior was investigated. Powder mixtures of WC-10 wt% SS without and with carbon addition were prepared, test specimens pressed, sintered and characterized in terms of their phase composition, detailed microstructural features, and mechanical properties. In this study, an enlarged evaluation of the mechanical properties was undertaken which included Young's modulus and transverse rupture strength characterization, besides the common hardness and fracture toughness determinations. A better compromise between hardness and toughness, together with similar Young's modulus values, were obtained for these composites when compared with literature values for equivalent industrial hard metal composites with Co binder. However, the transverse rupture strength presents lower average values, which can be very significantly increased by carbon addition. These results were further analyzed, taking into account the phase composition and the microstructural features. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
keywords
TRANSVERSE RUPTURE STRENGTH; WC-CO COMPOSITES; STAINLESS-STEEL; ETA-CARBIDES; HARDMETALS; PARTICLES; TOUGHNESS; FRACTURE; BEHAVIOR; HARDNESS
subject category
Science & Technology - Other Topics; Materials Science; Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
authors
Fernandes, CM; Vilhena, LM; Pinho, CMS; Oliveira, FJ; Soares, E; Sacramento, J; Senos, AMR
our authors
Ana Maria de Oliveira e Rocha Senos
Collaborator
Carla Maria da Silva Pinho
PhD Student
Cristina Maria da Silva Fernandes
Collaborator
Filipe José Alves de Oliveira
Principal ResearcherGroups
G2 - Photonic, Electronic and Magnetic Materials
G3 - Electrochemical Materials, Interfaces and Coatings
G4 - Renewable Materials and Circular Economy
acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN/I&DT/11428/2009) of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).