High temperature hardness of tungsten carbide

The effect of crystallographic orientation and test temperature on hardness of WC single crystals was investigated along with the hot hardness of poly crystalline tungsten carbide. Also investigated was the effect of carbide grain size and the amount of binder phase on the hot hardness of some cemented tungsten carbides. The hot hardness of single crystal WC on all major crystallographic orientations evaluated decreases very rapidly for increasing temperature, and the single crystal hardness on its hardest orientation is only about half of the polycrystalline material depending on the test temperature. Because of its polycrystalline character, some cobalt bonded cemented tungsten carbides can be harder than single crystal WC over some intermediate temperature range.