Investigation on the mechanism of the infiltration process of contact material

The transport of liquid metal throughout skeleton is the core process of infiltration of contact material. In the case of silver tungsten carbide (AgWC), we discussed the mechanism of liquid silver (Ag) transport based on the morphology of product structure after each manufacturing process recorded by scanning electron microscope. Analysis shows that the transport of liquid Ag is mainly influenced by the ‘transport dynamic’, which is determined by interfacial energy between Ag and tungsten carbide (WC), and the ‘transport corridor’, which represents the distribution of the pore network in skeleton. It is shown that either to enhance the ‘transport dynamic’ or to broaden the ‘transport corridor’ will significantly improve the infiltration process, therefore increase the anti-erosion ability of AgWC material.