Production and characterization of WC-Co cemented carbides by field assisted sintering

Cemented WC-Co bulk materials were obtained from mixed WC-Co powder by using Field Assisted Sintering technique. Powder mixtures were sintered at 1300°C, 1350°C and 1375°C under 50MPa pressure in order to determine the effects of sintering temperatures. Sintering behavior and mechanical properties such as density, hardness, fracture toughness and modulus of elasticity of fine-grained WC-5 wt% Co and WC-10 wt% Co hard metal were investigated. Microstructural observations were carried out by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique. Test results show that densities of bulk materials sintered at 1375°C are higher than 99 % of theoretical density. Mechanical test results point out that hardness, fracture toughness and modulus of elasticity are more dependent on composition of cobalt content than sintering temperature.