Use of Ti in hard metal alloys – Part II: mechanical properties

WC‐Co hard metal is a material of high hardness, high compressive strength and wear resistance while maintaining good toughness and thermal stability. Samples of nanosized WC powders with 10 wt% Co, WC‐10 wt% Ti, WC‐9 wt% Ti‐1 wt% Co were cold pressed at 200 MPa and sintered at 1500°C during 1 hour under vacuum of 10^–2 mbar. The characterization of the sintered materials was performed by the measurements of densification, HV30 hardness, fracture toughness and compression strength. The results showed that it is possible to process a hard metal through a Powder Metallurgical conventional route from nanoscaled WC grains, using Ti (or a Ti‐Co mixture) as a binder phase, with good mechanical properties.