Warm compacted NbC particulate reinforced iron-base composite(Ⅰ)--Effect of fabrication parameters

NbC was used as reinforced particles in the fabrication of iron base composite. Ball milling was introduced to overcome the problems of agglomeration and powder separation during powder mixing. After ball milling, the fine NbC particles are embedded on the surface of iron particles and evenly distributed in the mixed powders. Warm compaction was used not only to increase the green density but also to improve the formability of the mixed powder and to improve the compact’s green strength to facilitate handling. The influences of fabrication parameters such as ball milling time, annealing temperature and time, warm compaction temperature, sintering temperature and sintering time were studied. Compacts with a relative sintered density of 97% and a tensile strength of more than 800?MPa can be obtained by using a ball milling time of 5?h, an annealing temperature of 800?℃, a compaction pressure of 600?MPa, warm compaction temperature of 120?℃, sintering temperature of 1?280?℃, and sintering time of 80?min. The shrinkage at this sintering condition was approximately 4.3%.