TiC-21mol% Mo solid solution (δ-phase) and TiC-99 mol% Mo solid solution (β-phase), and TiC-(80~90)mol%Mo hypo-eutectic composite were deformed by compression in a temperature range from room to 2300 K and in a strain raterange from 4.9×10−5 to 6.9×10−3/s. The deformation behaviors of the composites were analyzed from the strengths of theδ- and β-phases. It was found that the high strength of the eutectic composite is due primarily to solution hardening of TiCby Mo, and that the δ-phase undergoes an appreciable plastic deformation at and above 1420 K even at 0.2% plastic strainof the composite. The yield strength of the three kinds of phase up to 1420 K is quantitatively explained by the rule of mixture,where internal stresses introduced by plastic deformation are taken into account. Above 1420 K, however, the calculated yieldstrength was considerably larger than the measured strength. The yield stress of β-phase was much larger than that of pure TiC.A good linear relationship was held between the yield stress and the plastic strain rate in a double-logarithmic plot. Thedeformation behavior in δ-phase was different among the three temperature ranges tested, i.e., low, intermediate and high. Atan intermediate temperature, no yield drop occurred, and from the beginning the work hardening level was high. At the testedtemperature, a good linear relationship was held in the double logarithmic plot of the yield stress against the plastic strain rate.The strain rate dependence of the yield stress was very weak up to 1273 K in the hypo-eutectic composite, but it becamestronger as the temperature rose.

The deformation properties of a TiC-Mo eutectic composite were investigated in a compression test at temperaturesranging from room temperature to 2053K and at strain rates ranging from 3.9×10−5s−1 to 4.9×10−3s−1. It was found that thismaterial shows excellent high-temperature strength as well as appreciable room-temperature toughness, suggesting that thematerial is a good candidate for high-temperature application as a structure material. At a low-temperature, high strength isobserved. The deformation behavior is different among the three temperature ranges tested here, i.e., low, intermediate and high.At an intermediate temperature, no yield drop occurs, and from the beginning the work hardening level is high. At a hightemperature, a yield drop occurs again, after which deformation proceeds with nearly constant stress. The temperature- andyield-stress-dependence of the strain is the strongest in this case among the three temperature ranges. The observed high-temperature deformation behavior suggests that the excellent high-temperature strength is due to the constraining of thedeformation in the Mo phase by the thin TiC components, which is considerably stronger than bulk TiC. It is also concludedthat the appreciable room-temperature toughness is ascribed to the frequent branching of crack paths as well as to the plasticdeformation of the Mo phase.

We have studied the effect of C/Ti atomic ratio of TiCx (x=0.5, 0.75 and 1.0) raw powder on the properties of the Ti-Mo-WTiC sintered hard alloy. The decrease of C/Ti atomic ratio accelerated the densification in the sintering process. The hardness was remarkably improved up to 1350HV with decreasing the C/Ti atomic ratio because of increase of TiCx phase volume content and its fine dispersion. From the results of electro-chemical tests in acid and 3% NaCl solutions, it was obvious that every alloy had excellent corrosion resistance, which meant about 200 times better than that of WC-Co cemented carbide.