Sintering characteristics of Iron and cobalt doped silver-tungsten metal-matrix composites

Abstract

Silver-Tungsten composites are known as electrical contact materials used in circuit breakers and industrial relays. The performance of the contact during their service life depends upon high strength and anti-weld properties of these materials. Despite their promising industrial applications, the literature dealing with their production route is still limited. Therefore, a comprehensive study exploring the structure related properties with great emphasis on the sintering process of these materials is carried out. Therefore, in this study, the successful production of a homogeneous composite powder with controlled tungsten particle size using co-precipitation and two stage reduction techniques is followed by the compaction and sintering processes. Thus, high density compacts are produced from Fe and Co doped silver-tungsten powder using powder metallurgy technique. Various environments and sintering conditions, including N2 atmosphere and temperatures up to 1000°C, to obtain successful compacts from both doped and un-doped powders, are investigated. The morphologies and the microstructures of the sintered compacts obtained under the different sintering conditions are characterized and assessed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Results display excellent agreement with the published studies and no evidence was found for the activated sintering of silver-tungsten by Fe additions. Also, the homogeneity of silver-tungsten in compacts is completely lost in the Fe-doped powders. However, Co additions help to facilitate the sintering between silver and tungsten whilst retaining a high homogeneity between the silver and tungsten in the sintered product. © Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2014.