Effect of mechanical activation of WC-based powder on the properties of sintered alloys

OBRABOTKAMETALLOV MATERIAL SCIENCE Vol. 23 No. 1 2021 relative content of W 2 C of up to 60 seconds of mechanical activation does not change and is no more than 10±5%, and with a longer processing its content decreases to 3  ±  5 %. Perhaps the formation of the X-ray amorphous phase is due to the presence of the W 2 C phase in the initial powders. Figure 3 shows the dependence of the full width at half maximum of WC and X-ray amorphous phases on the time of mechanical activation. A signi fi cant change in the half-widths is seen to begin after 10 s of mechanical activation. Fig. 4 shows the dependences of the CDD size ( a ) and microdistortion ( b ) calculated for the WC phase on the mechanical activation time. It can be seen that during the processing, the size of the CDD decreases from 47  ±  5 nm to 27  ±  5 nm, and the microdistortion increases from 1.1  ±  0.03  ·  10 –3 to 5.5  ±  0.03  ·  10 –3 . In this case, 10 s is the time after which the size of the CDD and the lattice microdistortion begin to change. Fig. 2. XRD patterns of VK-8 powders in the initial state and after milling Fig. 3. The dependence of the full width at half maximum of WC and X-ray amorphous phases on the time of mechanical activation