Thermal-mechanical process in producing high dispersed tungsten-copper composite powder

In this study, the reduction mechanism of tungsten-copper oxide precursors WO3, CuWO4 as well as the mixtures of these two components were analyzed in detail by TGA-DTA, SEM as well as particle size distribution, etc. The results showed that after milling for the oxide precursors in alcohol the reduced tungsten-copper composite powder showed better particle size distributions than the other two processes of dry milling and water milling. Surface modification by nitrogen showed to be effective in the anti-oxidation of the newly reduced powder because the absorption of nitrogen in the particle surface inhibits further oxidation. The final sintered parts of the reduced powder at 1200 °C and 60 min showed to have an extremely high relative density than the traditional process.