Effect of high energy milling on the microstruture and properties of Wc-Ni composite

Abstract

Hard metal is a composite material used in several areas of machining, mining and construction. It can be applied directly on oil and gas drilling equipment components. The main objective of this work was to apply a high energy milling technique to produce the WC-Ni composite and study the effects of milling time in the material properties. The milling of hard metal WC-20Ni, was performed for milling times of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 hours. The starting powders were characterized by laser sedigraphy, SEM and EDS. Microstrutural analysis of the sintered samples was performed by optical microscopy, microhardness and density by Archimedes. The best results for the WC-20%Ni composite were achieved for 8 hours milling, where the density and hardness reached 97.09% and 1058 ± 54 HV, respectively, after sintering.