Transition metal carbides (TMCs) are used to process difficult-to-cut materials due to the trend of requiring superior wear and corrosion properties compared to those of cemented carbides used in the cutting industry. In this study, TMC (TiC, TaC, Mo2C, and NbC)-based cermets were consolidated by spark plasma sintering at 1,300 oC (60 oCmin) with a pressure of 60 MPa with Co addition. The sintering behavior of TMCs depended exponentially on the function of the sintering exponent. The Mo2C-6Co cermet was fully densified, with a relative density of 100.0 %. The Co-binder penetrated the hard phase (carbides) by dissolving and re-precipitating, which completely densified the material. The mechanical properties of the TMCs were determined according to their grain size and elastic modulus: TiC-6Co showed the highest hardness of 1,872.9 MPa, while NbC-6Co showed the highest fracture toughness of 10.6 MPa*m1/2. The strengthened grain boundaries due to high interfacial energy could cause a high elastic modules; therefore, TiC-6Co showed a value of 452 ± 12 GPa.

Thermal shock resistance property has recently been considered to be one of the most important basic properties, in the same way that the transverse-rupture property is important for sintered hard materials such as ceramics, cemented carbides, and cermets. Attempts were made to evaluate the thermal shock resistance property of 10 vol% TaC added Ti(C,N)-Ni cermets using the infrared radiation heating method. The method uses a thin circular disk that is heated by infrared rays in the central area with a constant heat flux. The technique makes it possible to evaluate the thermal shock strength (Tss) and thermal shock fracture toughness (Tsf) directly from the electric powder charge and the time of fracture, despite the fact that Tss and Tsf consist of the thermal properties of the material tested. Tsf can be measured for a specimen with an edge notch, while Tss cannot be measured for specimens without such a notch. It was thought, however, that Tsf might depend on the radius of curvature of the edge notch. Using the Tsf data, Tss was calculated using a consideration of the stress concentration. The thermal shock resistance property of 10 vol% TaC added Ti(C,N)-Ni cermet increased with increases in the content of nitrogen and Ni. As a result, it was considered that Tss could be applied to an evaluation of the thermal shock resistance of cermets.

The indentation technique has been one of the most commonly used techniques for the measurement of the mechanical properties of materials due to its experimental ease and speed. Recently, the scope of indentation has been enlarged down to the nanometer range through the development of instrumentations capable of continuously measuring load and displacement. In addition to testing hardness, the elastic modulus of submicron area could be measured from an indentation load-displacement (P-h) curve. In this study, the hardness values of the constituent phases in Ti()-NbC-Ni cermets were evaluated by nanoindentation. SEM observation of the indented surface was indispensable in order to separate the hardness of each constituent phase since the Ti()-based cermets have relatively inhomogeneous microstructure. The measured values of hardness using nanoindentation were GPa for hard phase and GPa for binder phase. The effect of NbC addition on hardness was not obvious in this work.

Mo2FeB2 boride base cermets produced by a novel sintering technique, called reaction boronizing sintering through a liquid phase, have excellent mechanical properties and wear and corrosion-resistances. Hence, the cermets are applied to the injection molding die-casting machine parts and so on. We investigated that the effect of deoxidization and sintering temperature on mechanical properties and deformation of the MIM processed cermets. As a result, deoxidization temperature of 1323K and sintering temperature of 1518K were suitable. The MIM products of the cermets showed allowable dimensional accuracy and the same mechanical properties as the presssintered ones.

TiC-and Ti(C,N)-based cermets are excellent in semi-and final finishing of work piece during cutting operations. Typical microstructure of the cermets is a core/rim structure. The undissolved Ti(C,N) cores contribute to their high hardness while the rim phases, (Ti,M1,M2)(C,N)-type solid solutions, play great roles in enhancing the toughness. In this paper, various ultrafine pre-mixed MeC-Ni powders were synthesized and the powders were sintered or hot pressed after mixing in order to control the size and volume fractions of core and rim phases in the system. This paper will present the factors determining the microstructure along with mechanical properties.

The present work is a study on the argon gas pressure effects of Sinter/HIP sintering on microstructure and strength of different grades of TiC-NiMo cermets. Titanium carbide in the composition of different grades of TiC-NiMo cermets was ranged from 40 to 80 wt.% and the ratio of nickel to molybdenum in the initial powder composition was 1:1, 2:1 and 4:1 respectively. On the sintered alloys, the main strength characteristic, transverse rupture strength (TRS) was measured. Furthermore, the microstructure parameters of some alloys were measured and the pressure effect on pore elimination was evaluated. All the results were compared with common, vacuum sintered alloys. The TRS values of TiC-NiMo cermets could be considerably improved by using Sinter/HIP technique, for high-carbide fraction alloys and for alloys sintered at elevated temperatures.

The binder phase for TiC reinforced steel matrix composite was added in the form of elemental powders and master alloy powders. The microstructures, binder phase variation with TiC content and mechanical properties were evaluated. The addition of a type of binder phase largely effects the microstructure and mechanical properties. The binder phase variation from starting composition was observed with increase in wt% TiC content and this variation was higher when the master alloy powders were used as a binder. The response to heat treatment was decreased with an increase in TiC content due to the shift of binder phase from the starting composition.

Injection molding of corrosive super engineering plastics and engineering plastics with various fillers is conducted under severe conditions and causes corrosion and wear problems. We have developed boride base cermets, which have excellent corrosion-and wear-resistances, and tried to apply them into plastic molding machine parts. In this paper, the effects of V substitution for Cr on the mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and microstructure of Ni-5.0B-51.0Mo-(17.5-X)Cr-XV (mass%) model cermets were investigated. Both transverse rupture strength (TRS) and hardness increased monotonically with increasing V content and reached 2.94GPa and at 10.0%V, respectively. The improvements of TRS and hardness were attributed to microstructural refinement.

The effect of WC or NbC addition on various properties of Ti(C0.7N0.3)-Ni cermets was investigated. The microstructure oj Ti(C0.7N0.3)-xWC-20Ni showed a typical core/rim structure, irrespective of the WC content, whereas the structure oj Ti(C0.7N0.3)-xNbC-20Ni was different and was dependent on the NbC content. The hardness (HV) and the fracture toughness (KIC) had a tendency to increase marginally, while the coercive force (HC) and the magnetic saturation decreased gradually with an increase in WC or NbC content in the systems studied. In addition, increasing WC content in Ti(C0.7N0.3)-xWC-20Ni system, decarburization was retarded, while denitrification was accelerated

Sintered Ti(C,N)-based cermets were treated with hot isostatic pressing (HIP) at different nitrogen pressures. The tribological properties of the treated cermets have been evaluated. The results show that a hard near-surface area rich in TiN formed after HIP treatment. The cermets treated at higher pressure had a relatively lower friction coefficient and specific wear rate. In all cases the microhardness of treated cermets is higher than that without HIP natridation. The wear mechanisms of cermets were hard particle flaking-off and ploughing. It was also found that the HIP natridation is well-suited for improving the tribological properties of cermets.

The aim of present work is to link geometrical parameter of maximum area of structural defect (proposed by Y. Murakami, 1983) with surface fatigue mechanisms. Determined relations allow making predictions of surface fatigue properties of cemented carbides (WC-Co hardmetal - H15 - 85wt% WC and 15wt %Co, TiC-based cermets - T60/8 - 60wt %TiC and Fe/8wt% Ni and T70/14 - 70wt %TiC and Fe/14wt% Ni) in conditions of rolling contact and impact cycling loading. Pores considered being equivalent to small defects. Three comparative defects conditions are distinguished: surface pore, just below free surface and interior pores. The Vickers hardness of binder (as main responsible for the fracture mechanism of hardmetal and cermets) assumed to be the basis of such assumption. The estimate of this prediction has been done by analyzing the pore sizes using the statistics of extremes. The lower bound of fatigue properties can be correctly predicted by considering the maximum occurring pore size.

Model experiment was introduced to obtain the formation of a core/rim structure by only liquid phase reaction in Ti(C, N)-based cermet alloys. Infiltrated Ti(C, N)-Ni, , and TaC-Ni cermets were bonded to sandwiched specimen by heat treatment for 5hr. With nitrogen addition, both (Ti, Mo) (C, N) and (Ti, Ta) (C, N) rim structure was nucleated around comer of cuboidal Ti(C, N) core. However, equilibrium shapes of(Ti, Mo) (C, N) and (Ti, Ta) (C, N) rim were different possibly due to the effect of interface energy. The core/rim and rim! binder interfaces were parallel to each other with TaC addition, while rotated to each other with addition.