MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CONVENTIONALLY AND PLASMA-SINTERED Fe-NbC AND Fe-TaC COMPOSITES

摘要

Ceramic-hardened ferrous composites can be used as cost-effectivstructural components in a variety of applications including high-speesteels~(1-3)and electrodes used in the production of industrial gases.4Tthis end, ceramic or cermet powders, such as NbC, TaC, TiC, WC, anVC have been ball milled with iron powder, annealed, pressed, and subsequently sintered. The dilatometric behavior of (Fe,C)-NbC and (Fe,CTaC with ceramic contents up to 20 w/o, has been monitored in ordeto establish the sintering parameters required to produce dense com posites, thus avoiding the inherent difficulties encountered in sinterinconventional tool steels, such as limited sinterability and narrow temperature-densification ranges.~5