Synthesis and Characterization of Nanostructured WC-Co/Al Powder Prepared by Mechanical Alloying

Nanostructured WC-Co/Al powder was synthesized from WC-12Co powder and pure Al powder by mechanical alloying (MA). The morphology and microstructural evolution of WC-Co/Al powder were investigated by a series of characterization methods. The results showed that the β-Co phase in the initial WC-12Co powder was replaced by the Al xCo phases (such as Al9Co2 and Al13Co4). As the ball milling time increased, the average grain size of WC in the WC-Co/Al powder decreased firstly and then remained at a constant value of around 40 nm. The deposition behavior of powders sprayed by high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying was investigated. During spraying, the WC-Co/Al powder had a better flattening than the WC-12Co powder without ball milling, which is beneficial to fabricate compact coatings with lower porosity.