Adding Tungsten Semicarbide to 08Kh18N10T Corrosion-Resistant Steel and Its Effect on the Mechanical Properties

Interfacial phenomena and reactions between tungsten semicarbide (W 2 C) and corrosion-resistant steel melt have been studied using wetting experiments. The process has been studied using a high-temperature contact heating method of a W 2 C substrate and a metal sample made of 08Kh18N10T grade steel. It has been established that tungsten semicarbide exhibits a good wettability by corrosion-resistant steel, with the wetting angle ranging from 135 to 145 degrees. The substrate surface has been studied by means of electron scanning microscopy for determining the composition of reaction products. The analysis of the obtained results makes it possible to assume the fact that the content of chemical elements varies throughout the entire contact zone. However, their distribution pattern is uniform. Due to the obtained data, it could be assumed that the combination of these components for making dispersion-strengthened materials is quite applicable. For this purpose, experiments have been carried out to produce dispersion-strengthened centrifugally cast billets with the use of different casting types (horizontal and vertical ones). In order to obtain the experimental materials, tungsten semicarbide has been introduced into ingots in an amount of 1 wt % during horizontal and vertical types of centrifugal casting. After producing experimental materials, a number of such mechanical properties as tensile strength, yield strength and hardness have been studied. The experimental results allow one to conclude that the use of dispersion strengthening during centrifugal casting makes it possible to obtain metallic materials with improved mechanical properties. Thus, the tensile strength exhibits a 2.49% increase, the yield strength shows a 2.27% increase, and the hardness demonstrates a 5.02% increase (on the average for all the samples), which correlates with metal physicochemical properties upon applying dispersion-strengthening technologies.