Spark plasma sintering of (Ti0.9W0.1) C powders prepared by mechanical alloying

•Nano-sized Ti 0.9W 0.1C powders are prepared by mechanical alloying.•Ti 0.9W 0.1C bulk materials are fabricated using nano-powders via SPS reaction sintering.•Carbide particle size and relative density effect are studied.

Nanocrystalline (Ti0.9W0.1)C powder with a diffraction crystallite size of about 10 nm was synthesized by mechanical alloying. The formation of (Ti0.9W0.1)C carbide was detected by XRD measurements and microscopic observation. The sintering of these powders by a spark plasma sintering (SPS) at different temperatures were also studied. The results show that the maximum hardness was obtained for more relative density materials, meanwhile, the grain size is large. The micro-hardness and the relative density of the powder milled for 10 h and sintered at 1200 °C for 5 min under 100 MPa reach, respectively, 2978 HV and 98.35%.