Development of the Structure of Cemented Carbides during Their Processing by SLM and HIP

The study focuses on microstructural evolution in a WC-Co powder mixture during Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) processing. This powder mixture contained a 13 plus/minus 0.6 % weight fraction of Co binder and WC particles of mean size of 3.0 plus/minus 1.9 μm. SLM of the mixture produced samples of various densities, depending on the volumetric energy density (VED) applied. High VED levels led to densities of up to 88%. The aspects affected by changes in VED included the pore density as well as the resulting types of phases and the size of WC phase particles. At high VED, the material began to develop cracks due to embrittlement. This had multiple causes: coarsening of a-phase (WC), evaporation of b-phase (Co binder), and precipitation of h-phase. At low VED levels, pores formed, typically of nonsymmetric shapes, with sizes larger than 500 μm. Subsequent HIP processing led to an increased density, up to 96 % of solid material. Contributions to this increased density were provided by structure transformations, namely, coarsening of a-phase by up to 1300 % when compared to the powder grain size, and formation of h-phase. The results provided a basis for steering further research to explore to a greater depth the SLM and HIP processing of selected WC-Co powder mixtures with as yet unused ranges of process parameters.