Cemented carbides with highly oriented WC grains and formation mechanisms

A novel fabrication method combining in situ reactions and reactive sintering to prepare WC-Co cemented carbides with highly oriented WC grains and specific mechanical properties was developed. Low synthesis temperature and short holding time were used to synthesize WC-Co based composite powder through in situ reduction and carbonization reactions, and the subsequent consolidation was performed in the spark plasma sintering system. The microstructure of the resultant cemented carbide bulk material has obviously higher fraction of the WC basal planes on the cross-section which is perpendicular to the pressing direction of the sintering powder, the area percentage reaches 5 times of that on the cross-section parallel to the pressure direction. Correspondingly, the hardness, elastic modulus and wear resistance measured on the cross-section perpendicular to the pressing direction are simultaneously increased greatly with highly oriented WC grains in the microstructure.