Effects of Rare Earth and Hot Pressing Sintering Temperature on the Transverse Rupture Strength of Fe-based Diamond Composites

Effects of sintering temperature in hot pressing, t yp es, states and amounts of rare earth as well as TiH 2 on the transverse rupture strength (TRS) of Fe-based composites are studied by means of orthogonal test and variance analysis in this paper. It is found that sintering temperature has a significant effect on the TRS of Fe-based diamond composites. The optimal sin tering temperature is 780～860 ℃. On the contrary, the effects of RE additi v es on values of TRS of the diamond composites have on distinct difference no mat ter the RE is in the state of mixture or compound or oxidization. Experimental r esults demonstrate that Fe-based diamond composites with RE additives exhibit h igher TRS, which results in an increase in diamond retention capacity. The degre e of increment of TRS is different at different sintering temperatures. The opti mal amount of rare earth was found to be about 1% in weight. The effect of RE is more significant at lower sintering temperature. The experimental results also reveal that TiH 2 additive has a negative effect on the TRS of Fe-based compos ites. Microscope observations demonstrate that specimen without TiH 2 additives , shows fewer pores and denser structures in the base metal. It can also be seen from the SEM observation of the resulting fracturing surface of bending test sp ecimens that the bonding of the diamond-matrix interface is better in the speci men without TiH 2 than in the specimen with TiH 2. Also the fracture surface o f the specimen without TiH 2 reveals ductile cup and cone behavior.

Effect of Different Amounts of Graphite on the Sintering and Transverse Rupture Properties of Powder Metal Parts

Iron powders were mixed with graphite powders by 1-15 wt pct to produce block samples using powder metallurgy technique. The powders were blended in a three dimensional blender for 20 min and compacted in a die under 500 MPa by using a one directional press. Sinterability and mechanical properties of the samples with different carbon content were investigated. Sintering process was carried out on a belt furnace with flame curtain in dissociated ammonia atmosphere. Block samples produced were suitable for ASTM B-312 transverse rupture strength test apparatus and were tested with 0.050 kN/s velocity in a press under 100 g load. It was found that graphite amount up to 2 wt pct increased the contact area of particles and acted as a lubricant to affect the sintering behaviour positively. The results indicated that the samples containing up to 5 wt pct showed good sintering behaviour and also good hardness due to an increase in pearlite amount. However, the samples containing higher amount of graphite （more than 5 wt pct） affected the sintering behaviour negatively due to the settlement of free graphite around the Fe powders, which resulted in a decrease in the hardness and transverse rupture strength.

A modified failure criterion for transversely isotropic rocks

A modified failure criterion is proposed to determine the strength of transversely isotropic rocks. Me-chanical properties of some metamorphic and sedimentary rocks including gneiss, slate, marble, schist, shale, sandstone and limestone, which show transversely isotropic behavior, were taken into consider-ation. Afterward, introduced triaxial rock strength criterion was modified for transversely isotropic rocks. Through modification process an index was obtained that can be considered as a strength reduction parameter due to rock strength anisotropy. Comparison of the parameter with previous anisotropy in-dexes in literature showed reasonable results for the studied rock samples. The modified criterion was compared to modified Hoek-Brown and Ramamurthy criteria for different transversely isotropic rocks. It can be concluded that the modified failure criterion proposed in this study can be used for predicting the strength of transversely isotropic rocks.

EFFECT OF Mo AND Mo_2C ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF THE CERMETS BASED ON Ti(C,N)

Effect of Mo and Mo2 C on the microstructure and properties of Ti（C,N）-based cermets was investigated in this article. The results have indicated that the weight percentage of Mo from 5 to 10 can reduce Ti（C,N） grain diameter and thickness of the rim, and Ti（C,N） grain can be wetted by Ni-Cu-Mo liquid so as to get small contiguity of Ti（C,N） grain. In that way, the transverse rupture strength of Ti（C,N）-based cermets has reached 1800-1900 MPa; the fracture toughness has been due to 16-18 MPa.m1/2. But 15 wt pct Mo was not more effective on Ti（C,N）-based cermets, because the thickness of the rim becomes larger. In the circumstance of Mo2 C, 5 wt pct Mo2 C was good for microstructure and properties of Ti（C,N）-based cermets, but 11 wt pct Mo2C has resulted in larger contiguity of Ti（C,N） grain and big Ti（C,N） grain diameter so as to reduce transverse rupture strength and fracture toughness. So that, the effect of Mo on Ti（C,N）-based cermets is better than Mo2C.

Properties and microstructure of VC/Cr_3C_2-doped WC/Co cemented carbides

This paper deals with the effects of codoped VC/Cr3C2 and sintering temperature on the magnetic and mechanical properties of ultra-fine grained WC-12%Co alloys. Results show that the synergistic action of doped VC/Cr3C2 in optimal proportion enhances both the hardness and transverse rupture strength （TRS） of the alloys, with more homogeneous microstructtLre. When the alloy is sintered at 1430℃ and with 0.5% Cr3C2/0.2% VC, the TRS reaches 3786 MPa, the hardness is 91.7 HRA and the grain size smaller than 0.6 μm. The numerical analyses on grain growth during the sintering process show that both VC precipitating on the WC grain boundary and Cr3C2 dissolving in the Co phase decrease the solid/liquid interfacial energy γ, the process of dissolution and reprecipitation is greatly retarded and the coarsening of WC grains is inhibited.

Study on interface between titanium-coated diamond and metal matrices

The XRD spectrum of titanium coated diamond showed the existence of titanium ca rbide on the interface between diamond and its titanium coating. The diffusions between titanium coating and metal matrices were stud ied by SEM. The SEM photographs revealed that titanium can interdiffuse with nic kel, cobalt, copper,iron and copper based alloy to a great extent to lead to th e disappearance of pure titanium layer and the formation of titanium diffusion l ayer. The results from transverse rupture strength test showed that ti tanium coating on diamond improved the bonding strength between diamond and metal matrices by 3.2% for Co based segment and 4.1% for Cu 10Sn based segment respectively.

Effect of Intermediate Annealing Temperature on Response of Repressing to Densification of Pre-Alloyed Cr-Mo Steel

Increasing density is one of the important factors for producing high quality powder metallurgy （PM） parts, which has beneficial effect on mechanical properties. One of the common techniques for achieving this goal is double compacting, which seems to be a potentially attractive method in PM route, also for Cr-Mo alloyed-steels. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of first compacting pressure and intermediate annealing temperature on attaining higher densities and minimum interconnected porosity for Cr-Mo pre-alloyed steel. The effect of mentioned parameters was studied by measuring density, transverse rupture strength and macrohardness of repressed samples. The results show that for each first compacting pressure, the density range of repressed samples increases with the increasing annealing temperature up to a certain limit, due to C dissolution which causes free porosity and further densifieation. Annealing temperatures higher than optimum one should be avoided, since too much carbon dissolution results in harder and less deformable compacts. On the other hand, with regard to repressed density and other resulted properties, the amount of first compacting pressure offers considerable advantage in obtaining higher level of density and consequently improved mechanical properties.