Cutting edges with high hardness made of nanocrystalline cemented carbides

•The structure of nanocrystalline cemented carbides influences their hardness and density.•Nanocrystalline cemented carbides obtained by the PPS method have very high hardness.•We determine the influence of sintering parameters on the structure of nanophase WC–5Co

This article presents comparative results of investigations of cutting edges made of nanocrystalline and standard cemented carbides. The cutting edges made of nanocrystalline cemented carbides were sintered by the PPS method at various values of temperature (1320–1560 K) for 500 s in a vacuum of 0.05 Pa and under a load of 60 MPa. The results of investigations showed considerable variation in the structure of the nanocrystalline cemented carbides depending on the applied sintering parameters. The nanocrystalline cemented carbides obtained by the PPS method were characterized by considerably higher hardness than the standard cemented carbides with similar chemical composition. The PPS is a new method of producing sintered materials elaborated at Warsaw University of Technology.