Processing of Nanostructured WC-Co Powders and Sintered Steels

Abstract: Processing of nanostructured WC-Co and W-Co powders,modelling of Fe-Mn-Si alloy, swelling of Fe-Cu alloy, andmechanical properties and sintering of Fe-Mn-Si steels havebeen studied in the present thesis.W-Co precursors made by chemical synthesis were used toproduce nanostructured WCCo and W-Co powders by calcination,reduction and carburization. The phase constituents in thecalcined powders depend on temperature and atmospheres. Cobaltcan accelerate the reduction rate of the W-Co precursors as acatalyst, and cobalt influences the formation of intermediatephases during the reduction of the precursors.The ratio of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide controlscarburization process, gives different intermediate phases andcarburization rates. There exist several intermediate phases: W6Co6C, W3Co3C, W2C due to varying carbon monoxide content in thecarburization gases. Nanostructured WC-Co powders with aparticle size of 20-50 nm have been obtained.The effect of silicon content on the particle sizedistribution of milled Fe-Mn-Si master alloy powders is muchmore significant than that of manganese content. A finer finalparticle size can be obtained in the alloy powders with highersilicon compositions. Long time milling results in theagglomeration of small particles. The grinding process can bedescribed using classic batch grinding equation based on thepopulation balance model. A swelling model for Fe-Cu alloyssintered at the temperatures above the melting point of copperhas been established based on the penetration mechanism. In themodel, the particle coordination number and heating rate wereused to express the porosity and the thickness of the diffusionlayers between iron and copper particles respectively.The effects of sintering temperature and time on theproperties of sintered steels have been studied. Fe-Mn-Simaster alloys made by cast-milling, atomizing, and acombination of atomization and milling have been covered. Themilled, and atomizationmilled alloy steels showed goodmechanical properties with small dimensional change. Transientliquid phase of the Fe-Mn-Si alloys accelerates densification,and offer fast diffusion of alloying elements. The addition ofa small amount of Fe-Mn-Si master alloy to Astaloy 85Mo powdercan lead to high strength with zero dimensional change.Key words:Processing; Modelling; Nanostructured powder;WC-Co; W-Co; Calcination; Reduction; Carburization; Particlesize; Sintered steel; Fe-Cu alloy; Swelling; Fe-Mn-Si masteralloy; Mechanical properties; Sintering parameters.