Mechanical characterization of WC–10 wt% AISI 304 cemented carbides

Growing demands for new composites showing high performance and enlarging fields of application have drawn a great interest on hard metal industry. In this work, new composites of WC–stainless steel AISI 304 (SS) binder, containing Fe, Cr and Ni as main elements have been developed and their mechanical behavior was investigated. Powder mixtures of WC–10 wt% SS without and with carbon addition were prepared, test specimens pressed, sintered and characterized in terms of their phase composition, detailed microstructural features, and mechanical properties. In this study, an enlarged evaluation of the mechanical properties was undertaken which included Young׳s modulus and transverse rupture strength characterization, besides the common hardness and fracture toughness determinations. A better compromise between hardness and toughness, together with similar Young׳s modulus values, were obtained for these composites when compared with literature values for equivalent industrial hard metal composites with Co binder. However, the transverse rupture strength presents lower average values, which can be very significantly increased by carbon addition. These results were further analyzed, taking into account the phase composition and the microstructural features.