Andreas Blomqvist

Liquid Phase Sintering of (Ti,Zr)C with WC-Co

(Ti,Zr)C powder was sintered with WC-Co following an industrial process, including an isotherm at 1410 °C. A series of interrupted sintering trials was performed with the aim of studying the sintering behavior and the microstructural evolution during both solid-state and liquid-state sintering. Reference samples, using the same elemental compositions but with the starting components TiC and ZrC instead of (Ti,Zr)C, were also sintered. The microstructure was investigated using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It is found that the (Ti,Zr)C phase decomposes into Ti-rich and Zr-rich nano-scale lamellae before the liquid-state of the sintering initiates. The final microstructure consists of the binder and WC as well as two different γ phases, rich in either Ti (γ1) or Zr (γ2). The γ2 phase grains have a core-shell structure with a (Ti,Zr)C core following the full sintering cycle. The major differences observed in (Ti,Zr)C with respect to the reference samples after the full sintering cycle were the referred core-shell structure and the carbide grain sizes; additionally, the microstructural evolution during sintering differs. The grain size of carbides (WC, γ1, and γ2) is about 10% smaller in WC-(Ti,Zr)C-Co than WC-TiC-ZrC-Co. The shrinkage behavior and hardness of both composites are reported and discussed.

Atomic diffusion in liquid nickel: First-principles modeling

Self- and impurity diffusion coefficients are assessed in the liquid nickel system by the fundamental ab initio molecular dynamics approach. The impurity diffusion coefficients in the Ni-X systems (X=C, Co, N, Nb, Ta, Ti, W) are mostly not available in the current literature. The simulations are performed at four temperatures, in the range from 1903 to 2303 K, which allows to extract activation energies and frequency factors for the temperature dependent diffusion coefficient assuming an Arrhenius-type behavior in the liquid. In addition to the temperature dependence, the concentration-dependent impurity diffusion was investigated for the Ni-Co system. The data are of relevance for the development of the state-of-the art Ni-based superalloys and alternative binder systems in cemented carbides. The obtained theoretical results are in very good agreement with the limited experimental data for the diffusion in liquid Ni systems.