Spark plasma sintering of WC, cemented carbide and functional graded materials

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is an extremely fast solidification technique for compounds that are difficult to sinter within the material group's metals, ceramics, or composites thereof. SPS uses a uniaxial pressure and a very rapid heating cycle to consolidate these materials. The heating is generated by Joule effect when a strong, pulsed electric current passes the conductive graphite die and also through the sample, if conductive. Cemented carbides (hard metals) are mostly used for metal cutting and drilling, wood cutting or rock drilling tools and are consolidated either by pressureless sintering (PLS), hot pressing (HP), or hot isostatic pressing (HIP). With SPS the main benefit is the ability to control the WC grain size due to the short sintering times at high temperature. In addition, unwished reactions between WC and cobalt to form other phases are minimized. By SPS the amount of cobalt can be reduced towards zero in fully dense WC materials. With this technique it is easy to prepare gradient materials where a ductile weldable metal can be joined with the cemented carbide part. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.