Influence and effectivity of VC and Cr3C2 grain growth inhibitors on sintering of binderless tungsten carbide

For the production of hard, high temperature and abrasion resistant parts, like water-jet nozzles or pressing tools for forming glass lenses, binderless cemented carbide is used. In this work, the consolidation of tungsten carbide with additions of VC and Cr₃C₂ grain growth inhibitors is studied. Tungsten carbide powder dry or wet milled was consolidated by dry pressing, debindering and gas pressurized sintering and, alternatively, by spark plasma sintering. The effect of adding VC and Cr₃C₂ to binderless tungsten carbide on the grain growth was studied with contents being 0; 0.1; 0.3; 0.5; 0.7 and 1.0 wt.%. Samples with an ultrafine microstructure free of abnormal grain growth, a hardness of 25.5 GPa and a fracture toughness of 7.2 MPa·m^1/2 were archived by conventional sintering. Both carbides reduce grain growth, but with Cr₃C₂ a finer microstructure can be achieved at lower amounts. Compared to the same amount of Cr₃C₂, the addition of VC results in smaller grains but lower hardness and fracture toughness.