Combustion synthesis of tungsten carbides under electric fieldII. Field-activated pressure-assisted combustion synthesis

The field-activated pressure-assisted combustion synthesis (FAPACS) process, which combines the simultaneous synthesis and densification of materials, was utilized to produce tungsten carbides material from tungsten and carbon powders with different mole ratio between them, i.e. W+1.0C, W+1.1C, W+1.2C, W+1.3C and W+1.4C. The percentages of the total shrinkage occurring before and during the synthesis reaction were measured. The effects of the temperature, the reactants composition, different carbon sources on the products composition, densities and microhardness were investigated. The end-product relative densities ranged from 81.1 to 89.9%. Vickers microhardness measurements (at 1 kg force) on the dense samples gave values ranging from 731 to 423 kg mm−2.