Mechanical Properties and Rapid Sintering of Nanostructured WC-Al2O3-Al Hard Materials

Nanostructured WC-Al 2 O 3 -Al composites was sintered using rapid high-frequency induction heated sintering (HFIHS) and the mechanical properties such as hardness and fracture toughness with consolidation were investigated. The HFIHS method induced a very fast densification nearly at the level of theoretical density and successfully prohibited grain growth, resulting in nano-sized grains. The fracture toughness was improved due to the consolidation facilitated by adding Al to WC-Al 2 O 3 matrix. The WC-Al 2 O 3 composites added with 5 and 10 vol.% Al showed higher hardness and fracture toughness compared with that of WC-Al 2 O 3 .