Oscillating pressure sintered W-Cu refractory alloy with high density and hardness under lower temperature

Abstract The novel oscillating pressure sintering (OPS) technique was used to design and prepare 90 W-10Cu (mass fraction) refractory alloys under lower sintering temperature, and the effects of sintering temperature on microstructure, density, grain size and Vickers hardness were invested. When the sintering temperature was 1200°C, the density and Vickers hardness of the OPS sample are 99.38% and 168.7 HV1, respectively, which are higher than the hot-pressed sintered samples at the same temperature. The density of W-Cu refractory alloys could be effectively promoted under lower temperature by the oscillating pressure sintering. Moreover, the grain size could be reduced activity within 4 μm during the sintering process. This is mainly due to the liquid phase binder fully filling the W grains under oscillating pressure to form the closer network microstructure, which promotes improvement of the density and performance. The results show that the oscillating pressure sintering with low temperature is beneficial to the preparation of W-Cu refractory alloy with higher density, fine-grained and well property.