Effect of cobalt addition on the liquid-phase sintering of W-Cu prepared by the fluidized bed reduction method

A new process, fluidized bed reduction (FBR) method, was applied for fabrication of uniform W-Cu sintered material. Liquid-phase sintering was carried out to obtain fully densified W-Cu composite, and the effect of cobalt addition on the sintering behavior was investigated. It was found that fully densified material could not be obtained even after sintering at 1,200 C for 4 hours in the case of 75W-25Cu, while more than 96 pct density could be obtained as soon as the sintering temperature reached 1,200 C when 0.5 wt pct cobalt was added prior to the sintering. It has been found that the wetting angle of the liquid copper is reduced significantly by the addition of cobalt, and the formation reaction of Co[sub 7]W[sub 6] intermetallic compound at the surface of the tungsten powder is mainly responsible for the enhancement of the densification process.