Different techniques have been designed and carried out in the latest decades in order to improve the properties, especially the surface, of the materials to solve the problems and to answer the working requirements. Coating processes, as well as higher carbide contents, are proposed as available methods to overcome the limits for high speed steels applications. Powder metallurgy offers the advantage to obtain a composite material with a high content of reinforcement and, consequently, with a big hardness as well as the possibility of changing the composition as a function of the requirements. The materials developed in this work are constituted by a HSS matrix core and composite materials with this matrix and gradient concentration of NbC reinforcement, from the core to the surface, through different steps. Composite powders of different content in NbC were produced through high energy milling in order to obtain the gradient composition. These powders were characterised in their morphology and microhardness. The materials were processed through conventional P/M techniques, pressing and sintering. The behaviour of the final materials was studied by means of the microhardness profile and bending strength, showing a high increment in this one by means of the gradient composition.
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