Estudo da sinterização de carbeto de tungstênio utilizando ligantes alternativos 316L e FeNi com adição de cromo

Abstract

Hard metal WC-Co is used in the machining, drilling and or manufacturing of cutting tools. Currently, 70% of the cutting tools are WC-binder carbides. In production numbers, approximately 40,000 MT of WC-binder tools have been produced worldwide since 2011. Today, more than 90% of all WC-binder production uses cobalt as the main binder. The superiority of cobalt over other binders is linked to several factors, the main being the width of the carbon window in the phase diagram. The search for alternative binders that may at least partially replace cobalt is of extreme importance due to the scarcity and price of cobalt and especially the WC-Co system being carcinogenic. The goal of this doctoral thesis was to analyze the feasibility of using alternatives binders 316L stainless steel and FeNiCr alloy, in tungsten carbide. Both system WC-316L (5, 7 and 20% of binder contents) and WC-20%FeNi with addition of chromium (in 5, 10 and 20% in solution) were processed by powder metallurgy route following the steps: preparation of the mixtures, milling (1h, 24h), compaction uniaxial (200MPa) and vacuum sintering (1400oC/1h). The all samples were characterized by optical and electron microscopy, xray diffraction, magnetic saturation and coercivity, hardness and electrolytic etching. The calculation of vertical sections of the phase diagrams for the system WC-FeNiCr was made. The results obtained and discussed demonstrate that the binder 316L, is not a viable alternative in hard metal because it contains high chromium content. The binder 316L when sintered with tungsten carbide will always precipitate eta phase, which makes its application as an alternative binder in WC impossible. For the binder FeNiCr, the results demonstrate that the maximum content of chromium that may be contained in solution in tungsten carbide that there is no precipitation of chromium carbide is approximately 4%. The addition of chromium above 4% in solution leads to the precipitation of chromium complex carbides, and further drastically reduces the carbon window of the composite.