Effects of Transition Metal Carbides on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ultrafine Tungsten Carbide Via Spark Plasma Sintering

WC-Co cemented carbides were consolidated using spark plasma sintering in the temperature 1400°C with transition metal carbides addition. The densification depended on exponentially as a function of sintering exponent. Moreover, the secondary (M, W)Cx phases were formed at the grain boundaries of WC basal facet. Corresponded, to increase the basal facets lead to the plastic deformation and oriented grain growth. A higher hardness was correlated with their grain size and lattice strain. We suggest that this is due to the formation energy of (M, W)Cx attributed to inhibit the grain growth and separates the WC/Co interface.