Estudo das brasagens de WC-Co/AgCu/aço H13 e WC-Co/AgCUNi/aço H13 utilizando metalização mecânica

Abstract

Metal-WC-Co interfaces are present in oil well drilling operations, where tricone drill bits with hard ceramic inserts play an important role. The combination of cutting, crushing and breaking up of rocks results in the degradation of tricone drill bits by wear, total or partial rupture of the drill bit body or the ceramic inserts, thermal shock and corrosion. In addition, the improper pressfitting of the ceramic inserts on the bit body may cause its total detachment, and promote serious damages to the drill bit. The improvement on the production process of metal-ceramic interfaces can eliminate or minimize some of above-mentioned failures presented in tricone drill bits, optimizing their lifetime and so reducing drilling metric cost. Brazing is a widely established technique to join metal-ceramic materials, and may be an excellent alternative to the common mechanical press fitting process of hard ceramic inserts on the steel bit body for tricone drill bit. The metallization of WC-Co surfaces is used to improve the wetting and adhesion of the M/C system, when a liquid phase is present during the brazing process. In this work, the effect of brazing temperature was studied on WC-6Co and H13 steel couples, using 72Ag28Cu eutectic based brazing alloys inside a furnace under high vacuum. Mechanical and microstructure caracterization of the interfaces produced was analysed by 3 point flexural tests, SEM-EDX and XRD techinques.d, and the interfaces produced were analysed by SEM-EDX. Better results for mechanical strenght were found for the systems brazed at 880ºC using AgCu eutectic braze alloy.