Effect of sintering on microstructures and properties of sub-micron Ti(C,N) -based cermets

摘要

The influence of different sintering processes, including vacuum sintering, vacuum sintering followed by HIP and sintering-HIP, on the microstructure and properties of sub-micron Ti(C,N) cermets with various binder contents was studied. Image analysis based on back-scattered electrons image observations was used to determine the morphologic and structural characteristics. Transverse rupture strength (TRS) , hardness, fracture toughness were measured and TRS data were treated by Weibull statistics further. It is shown that a very significant improvement in TRS can be obtained by HIP or sintering-HIP treatment for the alloys with lower and middle binder content at the controlled cooling rate, but the effect is not obvious for the alloys with higher binder content. HIP is also helpful for improving the hardness of sub-micron Ti(C,N) cermets, however, but can lower the fracture toughness. The variation of these properties was interpreted in terms of the difference in morphologic and structural characteristics.