EP3448603A1

EP3448603A1 - Carbide with toughness-increasing structure

Info

Publication number: EP3448603A1
Application number: EP17716830.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Tino Saeuberlich; Johannes POETSCHKE; Volkmar Richter
Original assignee: HC Starck Tungsten GmbH
Current assignee: HC Starck Tungsten GmbH
Priority date: 2016-04-26
Filing date: 2017-04-06
Publication date: 2019-03-06
Also published as: IL261624A; JP2019516860A; RU2018133709A; US20190136353A1; US11104980B2; RU2018133709A3; JP6806792B2; IL261624B; WO2017186468A1; RU2724771C2; CN109070216B; CN109070216A; KR20180136956A; KR102217787B1; DE102016207028A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing a carbide with a toughness-increasing structure, comprising the following steps: providing a hard material powder, wherein the average BET particle size of the hard material powder is less than 1.0 μm; mixing the hard material powder with a binder powder; shaping the mixture made of hard material powder and binder powder to form a green body; and sintering the green body. The invention also relates to a carbide with a toughness-increasing structure comprising a phase made of hard material particles and a phase made of binder metal heterogeneously distributed in the carbide, which is present in the form of binder islands, wherein the carbide with a toughness-increasing structure produced after the sintering has a phase made of hard material particles with an average particle size in the region between 1 nm and 1000 nm, and the binder islands have an average size of 0.1 μm to 10.0 μm and an average distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μm to 7.0 μm.

Description

Carbide with toughening structure

Technical area

The present invention relates to the technical field of materials science. The invention relates to hard metals with toughened structure, which combine high hardness and high fracture toughness, and the production of hard metals by a method in which the sintering of the green body is carried out by solid-phase sintering, as well as the use of the hard metal.

State of the art

Cemented carbide is a powder metallurgy alloy made of a hard material such as tungsten carbide (WC) and a binder metal, usually of the iron group (iron, cobalt, nickel). For example, tungsten carbide is 70 mass% to 98 mass% tungsten carbide and 2 Ma-% - 30 Ma-% cobalt. The tungsten carbide grains usually have a particle size of 0.3 μιη -10 μιη. A second component, usually cobalt (or iron, nickel or a compound of cobalt, iron, nickel) is added as a matrix, binder, binder metal, binder, and toughness component and fills the interstices between the tungsten carbide grains.

Carbides are used in a large number of technical applications, where the materials must have high wear resistance, hardness and high strength.

The highest hardnesses are achieved for binder-poor hard metals and carbides with extremely fine-grained hard materials. However, these alloys usually have a comparatively low fracture toughness. The fracture toughnesses of low-binder hard metals and hard metals with fine-grained hard materials are comparable to those of ceramic materials. The attempt to improve the mechanical properties of the hard metal to a higher hardness of the material, therefore, has so far led almost inevitably in the prior art to a simultaneous deterioration of the fracture toughness. Depending on the application and stress could therefore in the prior art either only very hard hard metal alloys or alternatively, only alloys with good toughness, but at the same time of rather lesser hardness, are made available.

The establishment of a certain combination of mechanical properties in hard metals, especially with regard to hardness, fracture toughness and strength, has heretofore primarily been based on the selection of the grain size of the starting powder, the metallic binder content, and the concentration of grain growth inhibitors. The prior art has hitherto essentially established methods by which the hardness and strength of cemented carbide inserts could be increased. At the same time, the production of nanoscale carbides could be optimized in known processes. A fundamentally improved

Fracture toughness of hard metals could not be achieved by the already known methods, however.

It has also been known to the person skilled in the art that very fine-grained hard metals will be hard and brittle and increasing the binder content leads to a decrease in hardness, but only to a moderate increase in fracture toughness. It was previously assumed that with very small free path lengths in the binder no free dislocation movements are possible. In his dissertation (about 1976), Gille points to a minimum value of the mean free path, below which cobalt loses its ductile properties and becomes a brittle material, because below a certain layer thickness the metallic binder barely permits dislocation movements and thus loses its plastic properties , This disadvantage is largely accepted as a material condition.

In principle, this phenomenon could be counteracted by concentrating part of the incorporated binder in binder pools. Corresponding microstructures with "inhomogeneous cobalt distribution", in which the binder arranges in cobalt pools, which are larger than (approximately) the average size of the hard material in the form of toilet grain were previously considered in the prior art as "undercut". For very coarse binder enrichments, as z. B. in the hot isostatic recompression of porous hard metals may arise, one speaks in this context of "binder lakes". It has been known by those skilled in the art that the formation and presence of such binder lakes will significantly reduce the strength of the alloy. The responsible structural phenomena were therefore previously considered undesirable and technically disadvantageous. For example, it has hitherto been assumed that these hard metals can only have strengths which correspond to a highly porous material, despite the 100% density.

In the prior art, therefore, only very few attempts have been made so far to improve the toughness of the materials with constant hardness and / or wear resistance.

DE 10 2004 051 288 A1 relates to ultrafine and nanoscale hard metals with cobalt as binder metal, in which case a polycrystalline hard material in bimodal form (polycrystalline tungsten carbide particles) must be present. By using nanoscale polycrystalline hard grains and the associated increase in the mean free path lengths in the binder, the combination of hardness and fracture toughness is improved. Depending on the application, the hard aggregates can have average dimensions of a few micrometers to several hundred micrometers. The free path length in the cobalt binder component is usually below the size of the hard aggregates in the range up to a few micrometers and is the mean free

Path length in conventional fine, medium or coarse-grained hard metals comparable. In the range of such dimensions of the binder occurs at break still significant plastic deformation in the binder. The fracture toughness can also be used to increase the fracture strength, as long as the cobalt enrichments do not become fracture-inducing defects. This only happens when they reach the size of macropores. Very good hardness and fracture toughness were observed in DE 10 2004 051 288 A1 in the production of hard metals from super-ultrafine-grained and nanoscale tungsten carbide powders, where the hard material was present in two different, ductile matrix phases and thus had to be used in bimodal form , However, this technology requires a relatively complicated production process, in which the production of special, polycrystalline hard material particles in bimodal form takes place in a first process step, which are then processed in a second process step to form a hard metal. An over the entire component extending increase in toughness at a constant hardness can be achieved by the introduction of a further degree of freedom in the micro structure. According to US 5,593,474 a composite body for rock working is proposed, which consists of two types (bimodal) hard metal granules, which differ in the grain size and toughness and are mixed together before molding. The tougher variety consists of WC with a grain size of 2.5 μιη to 10 μιη, while the grain size of the harder alloy between 0.5 μιη and 2 μιη is. The more brittle granules account for 20% by mass - 65% by mass of the material. The sintered body consists of a mixing of zones with different WC grain size. The size of the zones results from the size of the granules used and their change during pressing and sintering. Binder migration forms "dispersion zones" in the contact area, with the advantage of a relatively constant hardness and toughness up to a fine-grained alloy content of about 50% by mass, starting from an alloy of hardness HRA 89.5 and having a Palmqvist crack resistance of about 275 kgf / mm, the properties change by admixing an alloy with a

Hardness of HRA 91.3 and a cracking resistance of 135 kgf / mm only within an interval of +0.5 HRA units and +10 units of crack resistance (in kgf / mm), wherein the hardness increase is coupled with a decrease in crack resistance and vice versa. This should under certain conditions result in improved wear resistance of the alloy without compromising toughness. A general improvement of the combination of hardness and fracture toughness, however, is not achieved in this way. The indefinite volume fraction of the forming "dispersion zone" leads to a scattering of the mechanical properties.The inventors make no statements about the strength, but due to the size of the introduced brittle areas, a significant decrease is to be expected.

A considerable improvement in the toughness of binder-rich alloys succeeds according to US 5,880,382 by incorporation of already densely sintered hard metal granules, as are customary for thermal spraying, into the metal matrix of cobalt or steel. This results in a carbide-like structure of very large hard granules in a ductile matrix. The hard phase, however, differs in its size and in its internal structure from the hard metal carbide. While the hard phase in the conventional hard metal consists of WC crystals with a mean chord length of 0.2 μm to 6 μm, the hard phase in the alloy can still have dimensions of up to 500 μm have μηι. In addition, the hard phase itself is a cemented carbide (ie a mixture of WC and Co), which is why this alloy is referred to as "Double Cemented Carbide" (DC Carbide Composites), which contains carbides of the transition metals W, Ti, Mo, Nb, V , Hf, Ta, Cr, for whose grain size a range from 1 μιη to 15 μιη is given.These are bound by a metal from the group Fe, Co, Ni or an alloy of these metals.For binders in the hard granules, "first called "ductile phase", are called mass fractions of 3% by mass to 25% by mass. The ductile matrix, called "second ductile phase", consists of at least one metal of the group Co, Ni, W, Mo, Ti, Ta, V, Nb and may contain further additives The additives serve to control the melting point of the second ductile phase In order to increase the wear resistance of the second ductile phase, additions of extremely finely divided hard materials are proposed, The second ductile phase occupies a volume of up to 40% by volume of the total volume in the alloy. up to 40% by volume.

The hard phase can be obtained in a first process step according to the technique of producing powders for thermal spraying or over pellets to be broken. The hard granules are then mixed with a metal powder and sintered in a second phase to dense moldings. The compression to Double Cemented Carbide is carried out by so-called "rapid omnidirectional compaction" (ROC), hot pressing, solid phase or

Liquid phase sintering, hot isostatic pressing or forging. Another method described is infiltration with a second ductile phase.

The parts obtained in this way have a good combination of wear resistance and toughness and are particularly suitable for producing inserts for rock working tools such as roller and impact drills. Fracture toughnesses of up to 40 MPa * m ^{1/2 are} achieved. However, these high values only arise in the case of particularly binder-rich alloys in which the volume of the ductile second phase accounts for at least 30% by volume of the total volume.

According to Deng, X. et al, Int. J. Refr. & Hard Materials 19 (201) 547-552, results in fracture toughness for double cemented carbides compared to conventional carbides only for hardnesses below about HV = 1300. This solution is geared towards mining tools with high toughness requirements and opens up possibilities for replacing steel with wear-resistant carbide. However, this approach is not transferable to grades with lower binder content, as is common, for example, with alloys for metal cutting or woodworking. Another decisive disadvantage is that due to the coarse deposits, the strength drops by about 30%.

The disadvantages described above should be overcome with the present invention. task

The object of the present invention is based on the provision of a hard metal with an outstanding combination of mechanical properties, in particular with regard to hardness, strength and, above all, fracture toughness, the production of which, in contrast to the prior art, without the use of pre-synthesized bimodal hard metal alloys. Polycrystals takes place.

Moreover, a particular object of the present invention is the production of an ultrafine or nanoscale cemented carbide having a Vickers hardness of at least 1500 HV10 and a microstructure which, despite a very small mean free path in the binder (orienting but not exclusively insulating) 100 nm) has microstructural features that counteract crack propagation.

Furthermore, in the context of the present application, a sintering process for the production of such, preferably ultrafine or nanoscale, hard metal should be used, which allows the production of components with complex geometry with a wide variety of shapes. Finally, a cemented carbide is to be obtained which does not require the prior, expensive preparation and reaction of bimodal hard-material powders.

Description of the invention

In the context of the present invention, a special hard metal based on ultrafine or nanoscale, monomodal hard material particles, in particular tungsten carbide powder this actually has the better than the prior art sought combination of hardness and fracture toughness by a particular heterogeneous distribution of the binder metal. In the context of the present invention, the achieved toughness increase while maintaining the hardness of the material is achieved in that, in addition to the nanoscale and / or ultrafine hard material phase during the production of the claimed toughened structure small, homogeneously distributed binder accumulations (so-called binder islands) arise in the resulting zähigkeitssteigemden Structure of a crack propagation can oppose a higher resistance and thus allow the increased fracture toughness.

The claimed hard metal with the advantageous properties could be made accessible by the manufacturing method described below. In a first method step, a hard material powder is provided. The hard material powder according to the invention preferably consists of monomodal hard material grains which consist of crystallites of the carbides, nitrides and / or carbonitrides of the transition metals of the 4th, 5th and 6th subgroups of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Preference is given to WC, TiC, TaC, NbC, WTiC, TiCN, TiN, VC, CrsQ ZrC, HfC, M02C or a mixture of these components mentioned.

In the most preferred embodiment, the hard material powder comprises at least partially, or alternatively completely, tungsten carbide particles. In the context of the present invention, suitable hard material powders are generally present in monomodal form. Bimodal hard material powders are normally not used in the hard material powder according to the invention.

Bimodal hard powder powders used hitherto have bimodal character either with regard to their grain size distribution and / or with regard to their respective chemical or elemental constituents. Bimodal hard powder based on bimodal chemical or elemental composition have two different powder components with different chemical or elemental composition. Due to different Composition may then result, for example, different ductility for the respective components in the bimodal hard powder.

Bimodal hard material powders based on bimodal particle size distribution have two separate particle size maxima with regard to the corresponding frequency distributions, ie in simple terms they consist of a mixture of two hard material powders with two different particle sizes. The same applies to multimodal particle size distributions with, if necessary, more than two different particle size distributions, ie more than two different particle sizes.

By contrast, the monomodal (or unimodal) hard powder according to the invention consists only of a powder component which is uniform in terms of its chemical or elemental constituents as well as in terms of their particle size distribution. In other words, the grain size distribution of the monomodal hard material powder has only a clearly defined maximum in terms of the frequency distribution of the grain size, i. The hard powder according to the invention substantially comprises only a defined grain size, and therefore does not include a mixture of several powder components with different grain sizes.

Preferably, the hard material powder is present with a particle size of <1 μιη. This size range is a first prerequisite for sintering the corresponding material to a sufficient density by solid-phase sintering.

The hard material powder has an average BET particle size of less than 1.0 μιη or 0.8 μιη, preferably less than 0.5 μιη, more preferably less than 0.3 μιη, and most preferably less than 0.2 μιη on.

The hard material powders used in the invention are in particular so-called nanoscale and / or ultrafine hard powder powders. Nanoscale hard material powders, in particular those of tungsten carbide as hard material, therefore have an average BET particle size of less than 0.2 μm. Ultrafine hard powder, in particular those of tungsten carbide as hard material, have an average BET particle size of 0.2 μιη to 0.4 μιη or to 0.5 μιη. In a second process step, the hard material powder is mixed with a binder metal powder. The binder component is preferably a binder metal which is in powder form. The binder metal is preferably selected from the group of metals consisting of cobalt, iron, nickel, and combinations thereof. Most preferred as the binder metal is cobalt.

The binder metal powder has an average FSSS particle size (Fisher Sub-Sieve-Sizer) of less than 5 μm, preferably less than 3 μm, more preferably less than 2 μm, and very particularly preferably less than 1 μm. The binder metal powder may not only have a monomodal binder component but alternatively also a bimodal or even multimodal binder component.

The proportion of the admixed binder powder based on the total weight of the (total) powder mixture containing hard material, binder metal and all other optional additives, before compression to green body is 2% by mass to 30% by mass, preferably 5% by mass to 20 % By mass, and most preferably 6% by mass to 15% by mass.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, additional pressing aids or sintering aids may also be added for the production of the green body and / or the subsequent sintering of the green body during the production of the powder mixture.

The mixing of hard material powder and binder metal can be done in any way and using conventional devices. The mixing can be done dry or using a liquid grinding medium such as water, alcohol, hexane, isopropanol, acetone or other solvents.

Eligible for mixing mixers, mills, or similar suitable devices, such as ball mills or attritors. The mixing is carried out in a manner and over a period of time which is suitable for obtaining a uniformly distributed mixture of all components.

To produce the cemented carbide, the pulverulent hard material is usually mixed with the binder component and optionally with the other components. In front- Preferably, the mixing takes place in an organic grinding medium or water with the addition of a plasticizer, usually paraffin, in an attritor or in a ball mill. After sufficient comminution and mixing, the moist mass is dried and granulated. The drying is carried out, for example, in a spray tower.

Since it can come with increasing temperature and sintering time to an increasingly coarse microstructure in the hard metal, and with the coarsening of the hard material grain, preferably the tungsten carbide grains, usually a decrease in hardness and at the same time also an increase in toughness will be connected may optionally be added to reduce the grain growth, in addition grain growth inhibitors, which prevent or at least partially inhibit the growth of the hard material grains, in particular the tungsten carbide grains.

Grain growth inhibitors can either be added to the hard material powder before the addition of the binder, alloyed already in the hard material powder during the synthesis or, alternatively, mixed together with the binder component the hard material powder.

In cemented carbide, containing a binder component, for example in a system based on tungsten carbide as hard material and cobalt as binder, this effect can

Inhibition of grain growth can be used very advantageously by the addition of vanadium carbide (VC) or other grain growth inhibitors such as chromium carbide (Cr ₃ C ₂ ), tantalum carbide, titanium carbide, molybdenum carbide or mixtures thereof.

Using the grain growth inhibitors, the grain growth is largely suppressed, so that it is possible to produce particularly fine microstructures in which the mean free path then falls below the critical dimension of the binder film for the transition ductile brittle. In this way, the inhibition of grain growth by incorporation of a limited amount of grain growth inhibitor can make an important contribution to the achievement of the claimed technical effect. The addition of a powdery grain growth inhibitor is carried out in a proportion of 0.01% by mass to 5.0% by mass, preferably 0.1% by mass to 1.0% by mass, based on the total weight of the mixture. The shaping of the powder mixture consisting of hard material powder together with the binder component and optionally further optional additives can be carried out by established methods, for example by cold isostatic pressing or die pressing, extrusion molding, injection molding and comparable known methods. The shaping leads to green bodies, which preferably reaches a relative density based on the theoretical density of at least 35%, preferably 45%, particularly preferably> 55%.

Previously used methods for the production of ready-to-use cemented carbides are based on heating or sintering the green body after shaping so that the binder metal can be homogeneously distributed between the cemented carbide particle as a liquid phase.

The compacting process according to the invention in the context of sintering of the green body, however, must be performed so that the binder metal penetrates into all pores of the hard material areas but can not distribute evenly over the tungsten carbide grains, but remain in the structure during sintering binder islands. But a pore-free structure must arise. Solid-phase sintering is therefore the preferred method of sintering.

The binder islands, which are present in the structure after the sintering process, have a mean size of 0.1 μm to 10.0 μm, preferably from 0.2 μm to 5.0 μm, and particularly preferably from 0.5 μm to 1.5 μιη on. The mean size of the binder islands is thereby determined on sections on the electron microscope by means of linear analysis (line section method).

The binder islands also have a mean distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μm to 7.0 μm, preferably 2.0 μm to 5.0 μm, and particularly preferably from 1.0 μm to 4 in the hard metal according to the invention having a toughening property , 0 μιη on. The average distance between the binder islands is thereby determined on sections on the electron microscope by means of linear analysis (line section method).

The existence of the binder islands is a critical structural feature in the claimed toughened microstructure of cemented carbide, as the presence of the binder islands creates areas where the propagation of cracks is hindered, resulting in a hitherto unprecedented, pronounced fracture toughness.

The sintering according to the invention is preferably carried out by solid phase sintering, i. at a temperature at which there is no liquefaction of the binder component in the green body during sintering and therefore the binder metal can not be distributed as a liquid phase between the hard particles.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the toughening structure according to the invention, comprising the binder islands just described, is obtained in that complete densification takes place by means of pure solid phase sintering processes below the eutectic melting temperature of the alloyed binder.

In most cases, the temperature in the solid-phase sintering according to the invention will be at a temperature which is 10 K to 500 K, preferably 50 K to 450 K, particularly preferably 50 K to 350 K or even 50 K to 250 K below the eutectic melting temperature of optionally alloyed, binder is, while the holding time for the sintering step 5 minutes to 480 minutes, preferably 20 minutes to 360 minutes, and particularly preferably 30 minutes to 120 minutes. The eutectic melting temperature of the binder metal is routinely determined by DSC and results from the components of the entire system, including hard material, binder, and, if necessary, grain growth inhibitor. The person skilled in the art is familiar with this determination method.

A particularly preferred binder metal is cobalt. When using a cobalt binder and a tungsten carbide hard material, the preferred solid-state sintering temperature according to the invention is in the range from 1000 ° C. to 1485 ° C., preferably in the range from 1050 ° C. to 1275 ° C. more preferably in the range of 1100 ° C to 1250 ° C. Particularly preferred is therefore a sintering process at a temperature at which a completely dense, non-porous structure is achieved, but larger binder areas (binder islands) have not yet completely dissolved and distributed. Suitable solid phase sintering methods are all common sintering methods. Suitable solid phase sintering methods are, in particular, the following techniques: spark plasma sintering, electro-discharge sintering, hot-pressing, or gas-pressure sintering (sintering HIP). Furthermore, the island formation of the binder can also by the choice of the used

Binderpulvers (primary grain size of the binder) and be controlled by a mixture of very fine and coarse binder powder. The grain size of the binder used has already been described in detail above. The sintering according to the invention can optionally take place under reduced atmosphere or inert atmosphere. Preferably, the sintering is carried out in the presence of a vacuum (residual gas pressure) of less than 100 mbar, or more preferably at a vacuum of less than 50 mbar (argon, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc.). After sintering, ie preferably after solid-phase sintering, additional densification of the cemented carbide can optionally be carried out at a pressure of 20 bar to 200 bar, preferably 40 bar to 100 bar, following sintering.

In the context of the present invention, liquid sintering instead of or in addition to solid-phase sintering is likewise a possible, albeit less preferred embodiment, but only as long as the liquid sintering of the green body is stopped in time so that the binder does not become homogeneous in the microstructure during liquid sintering distributed.

In the context of the present invention, a very fine-grained microstructure of a hard metal is obtained within the scope of the production method according to the invention. This product preferably consists of an ultrafine or nanoscale hard material phase according to the definition of the working group "hard metals" in association powder metallurgy, which is transformed by the special process management so that while maintaining the high fineness of the Ge and the small mean free path of the binder, at least parts of the metallic binder phase are present as a ductile constituent of the alloy.

This ductile binder phase can then reduce the fracture energy in contact with a propagating fraction by deformation and thus counteract the further propagation of a fracture, thereby resulting in improved fracture toughness for the hard metal according to the invention.

According to the hitherto common doctrine, a hard metal structure with an uneven distribution of the binder, i. in which the binder is not evenly distributed between the hard material grains, but also selective binder areas are present whose dimension is clearly above the mean grain size of the hard material phase, regarded as "undercut". Microstructure would have inadequate mechanical properties.

In contrast, in the context of the present invention, it has surprisingly been found that this hitherto prevalent doctrine for extremely fine carbide microstructure, in particular for nanoscale and ultrafine carbide microstructure, in which the mean grain size of the hard material phase below 1 μιη, in particular below 0.5 μιη is not true. In order to achieve a high hardness and toughness at the same time according to the inventive concept, the inventors now propose particularly fine microstructures with homogeneously distributed coarser binder regions. The binder areas, however, should not exceed a critical size, otherwise it can lead to very heterogeneous properties in the carbide.

The hard metal according to the invention has in detail the following essential

Features on. The hard material according to the invention preferably consists of hard material grains which consist of crystals of the carbides, nitrides and / or carbonitrides of the transition metals of the 4th, 5th and 6th subgroups of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Preference is given to WC, TiC, TaC, NbC, WTiC, TiCN, TiN, VC, CrsCi, ZrC, HfC, M02C or a mixture of these components mentioned. A particularly preferred hard material in the context of the present invention represents pure tungsten carbide. In further preferred embodiments, tungsten carbide may be present in combination with further carbides as the hard material. Titanium carbide, tantalum carbide, vanadium carbide, molybdenum carbide and / or chromium carbide in particular may be present together with tungsten carbide.

In this case, the additional carbides, besides tungsten carbide, will preferably be present in an amount which does not exceed 5.0% by mass, or particularly preferably 3.0% by mass, based on the total weight of the hard metal obtained after the sintering.

In particular, WC-based hard metals with high proportions of additional carbides, so-called "P-hard metals" within the scope of the present invention may also be meant .. The mean grain size of the hard material grain in the hard metal after sintering is not more than 1.0 μιη, preferably not more than 0.8 μιη , more preferably at most 0.5 μιη, and most preferably at most 0.3 μιη or even only at most 0.15 μιη and is on the other hand 1 nm or larger, preferably 50 nm or larger Line cutting method) determined on micrographs by electron microscope.

The hard material or the hard material phase in the hard metal according to the invention is generally present in monomodal form. Bimodal hard material phases normally do not occur in the hard metal according to the invention.

The bimodal hard material phases may have bimodal character either in terms of their particle size distribution and / or with respect to their respective elemental constituents. Bimodal hard material phases due to bimodal chemical or elemental composition have two different hard material phases with different chemical or elemental composition in the hard metal.

Bimodal hard material phases due to bimodal particle size distribution have two separate particle size maxima with regard to the corresponding frequency distributions in simple terms, a mixture of two phases of hard material with two different particle sizes. The same applies to multimodal hard material phases.

In contrast, the hard metal according to the invention consists of a monomodal (unimodal) hard material or a monomodal (or unimodal) hard material phase. The hard material is thus uniform in terms of its chemical or elemental constituents as well as its particle size distribution.

This is a central difference between the hard metals according to the invention and the hard metal structures already described earlier, which could only achieve good characteristics with regard to hardness and fracture toughness due to their bimodal hard phase.

In the case of the hard metal structures according to the invention, the hard material is also preferably present with a so-called nanoscale and / or ultrafine grain size. The grain size of the hard material is measured in the hard metal microstructures according to DIN EN ISO 4499-2, 2010 according to the line cutting method.

Nanoscale hard metal structure, in particular those of tungsten carbide as hard material, have a particle size of less than 0.2 μιη. Ultrafine hard metal structure, in particular those of tungsten carbide as hard material, have a particle size of 0.2 μιη to 0.4 μιη, or up to a maximum of 0.5 μιη.

The hard metal according to the invention contains a binder or binder metals. Preferred binder metals are iron, cobalt, nickel, or mixtures of these metals. Particularly preferred binder metal is cobalt.

The binder is present in carbide only in limited quantities. Thus, the proportion of the binder based on the total weight of the total carbide product obtained after sintering is at most 30% by mass, preferably at most 25% by mass, more preferably at most 20% by mass, and most preferably at most 15% by mass. , An ideal proportion of the binder based on the total weight of the obtained cemented carbide product after sintering, on the other hand, is at most 12 mass%. The proportion of the binder based on the total weight of the cemented carbide after sintering is moreover preferably present in an amount of at least 2.0% by mass, more preferably in an amount of at least 6.0% by mass. To reduce grain growth during sintering, additional optional

Grain growth inhibitor be present in the carbide. Therefore, in the cemented carbide according to the invention comprising a binder component, for example in a system based on tungsten carbide as cemented carbide and cobalt as binder, titanium carbide, vanadium carbide chromium carbide (Cr ₃ C ₂ ), tantalum carbide, molybdenum carbide, and mixtures of these components may additionally be present.

The grain growth inhibitor in this embodiment is present in a proportion of 0.01% by mass to 8.0% by mass, preferably 0.01% by mass to 3.0% by mass, based on the total weight of the cemented carbide product after sintering.

The optional presence of the grain growth inhibitor in the cemented carbide can be helpful since it can better suppress grain growth, so that particularly fine microstructures can be produced in which the mean free path is below the critical dimension of the cobalt film for the ductile-brittle transition.

As technically particularly important in the experiments of the inventors, the presence after sintering of binder islands in hard metal with an average size of 0.2 μιη to 2.0 μιη has been shown. As already stated above, the binder islands in particular have a mean size of 0.1 μιη to 10.0 μιη, preferably from 0.2 μιη to 5.0 μιη, and more preferably from 0.5 μιη to 1.5 μιη in the hard metal , after sintering up. The average size is determined by linear analysis (line-cut method) on micrographs by means of electron microscopy.

The binder islands also have, in the hard metal structure according to the invention, an average distance between the binder islands of from 1.0 μm to 7.0 μm, preferably from 2.0 μm to 5.0 μm, and particularly preferably from 1.0 to 4.0 μιη on. The mean distance between the binder islands is determined by linear analysis (line-cut method) on micrographs by means of electron microscopy. In contrast to the common doctrine that a structure with uneven cobalt distribution (cobalt lakes, etc.) whose size is above the mean grain size of the hard material phase, has poor properties and is considered to be "undercut" was surprisingly found that this statement for extremely fine microstructure (For example, with a mean grain size of not more than 0.3μιη) is not true.

It has been demonstrated in the present invention that the presence of these binder islands, preferably cobalt islands, with typical dimensions of about 1.0 μιη to 7.0 μιη, ie in an order of magnitude, the average grain size of the hard material phase and, preferably also the middle Clear path length of the binder significantly exceed the fracture propagation in a hard metal much more than by thin binder layers is hindered, and then then surprisingly demonstrated here, the fracture toughness of the cemented carbide is significantly increased. To further clarify this important structural feature, reference is made to the comparison of the samples of Figures 1 and 2, and 3 and 4, respectively. In all figures, a nanoscale carbide with the composition WC lOCo 0.9VC was analyzed. Figures 2 and 4 (sample obtained by solid phase sintering at 1200 ° C), in contrast to Figures 1 and 3 (sample obtained by sintering at 1300 ° C) indicate the presence of the binder islands according to the invention. In the specific example, these are cobalt islands. On the other hand, the DSC curve already showed partial liquefaction of the binder component during sintering at a temperature of 1300 ° C. (FIGS. 1 and 3), so that solid-phase sintering is no longer present. FIGS. 1 and 3 therefore also show a structure which does not have any cobalt islands according to the invention.

Hardness and fracture toughness values found for the hard metal specimens according to Figures 3 and 4 (sample of Figure 3: hardness HV 10 = 1940, fracture toughness Kic = 7.9 MPa * m ^1/2 , sample of Figure 4: hardness HV 10 = 2080, fracture toughness Ki _c = 8.3 MPa * m ^1/2 ) show that significantly higher hardnesses can be achieved with the hard metals according to the invention with the cobalt islands with constant or even higher fracture toughness. The hard metal according to the invention preferably has a hardness of Vickers according to DIN ISO 3878 of at least 1500 HV 10, preferably of at least 1700 HV 10, more preferably of at least 1850 HV 10, or even at least 2000 HV 10, wherein at the same time the fracture toughness of the cemented carbide Shetty et al. at least 6.0

MPa * m ^1/2 , preferably at least 8.0 MPa * m ^1/2 .

The Vickers hardness HV10 of the hard metals is determined according to DIN ISO 3878. The calculation of the fracture toughness was carried out by the method according to D.K. Shetty, LG.

Wright, P.N. Mincer. AH. Clauen J. Mater. Be. (1985), 20, 1873-1882.

Preferred hard metals A to H according to the invention with particular combinations with regard to the hardness according to Vickers and the fracture toughness are thus given for the hard metal according to the invention as follows:

The cemented carbide having a toughening structure, which is obtained by the production method according to the invention, has, structurally, a phase of nano-scale and / or ultrafine, preferably monomodal, hard metal grain and binder islands dispersed therein, the cemented carbide (obtained after sintering) with a toughening microstructure, a phase of hard material grain having an average particle size in the range from 1 nm to 1000 nm, preferably 100 nm to 500 nm, and binder islands having an average size of 0.1 μm to 10.0 μm, preferably from 0, 2 μιη to 5.0 μιη, and more preferably from 0.5 μιη to 3.0 μιη or even from 1.0 μιη to 1.5 μιη, and a mean distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μιη to 7.0 μιη, preferably 2.0 μιη to 5.0 μιη, has. A further preferred embodiment relates to the above preferred hard metals of embodiments A to H, having a hardness according to Vickers according to DIN ISO 3878 of at least 1500 HV 10, preferably of at least 1700 HV 10, or of at least 1850 HV 10 or even at least 2000 HV 10, and a fracture toughness according to Shetty et al. of at least 6.0 MPa * m ^1/2 , preferably of at least 8.0 MPa * m ^1/2 , these hard metals being obtained by the above-described preparation method according to the invention and preferred embodiments thereof.

A further preferred embodiment relates to a hard metal comprising a phase of hard material grain and binder islands dispersed therein, characterized in that the hard metal obtained after sintering comprises a phase of hard material grain having a mean grain size in the range of 1 nm to 1000 nm, preferably 100 nm to 500 nm, and the binder islands a mean size of 0.1 μιη to 10.0 μιη, preferably 0.2 μιη to 5.0 μιη, and a mean distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μιη to 7.0 μιη, preferably 2.0 to 5.0 μιη, wherein this hard metal is produced by the manufacturing method according to the invention and its preferred embodiments.

The described technical features and the described production method make it possible, in particular, to simultaneously increase the hardness and fracture toughness of ultrafine and / or nanoscale hard metals, without the need for new raw materials or special sintering plants.

The hard metals according to the invention achieve high technical significance wherever particularly fine-grained hard metals are used, ie. H. in the machining of difficult to work materials or hardened steels, in particular with continuous tools such as drills and solid carbide cutters, for the production of taps, especially for the production of internal threads, in the manufacture of tools for cutting and punching of metals, paper, cardboard, plastics or magnetic tapes, and in wear parts and structural components made of hard metals such as sealing rings, press dies and matrices. Likewise, all turning processes in which indexable inserts are used must be mentioned.

The invention is exemplified by the following figures: Figure 1 shows an electron micrograph of a carbide with the composition WC lOCo 0.6VC 0.3Cr ₃ C ₂ , wherein during the sintering at 1300 ° C with a holding time of 90 min was carried out.

Figure 2 shows an electron microscopic micrograph of a cemented carbide with the composition WC lOCo 0.6VC 0.3Cr ₃ C ₂ , wherein in the production of a solid phase sintering at 1200 ° C was carried out with a holding time of 90 min. FIG. 3 shows an electron microscopic micrograph of a cemented carbide having the composition WCOCO 0.9VC, the sintering being carried out at 1300 ° C. during the production with a holding time of 90 min.

FIG. 4 shows an electron microscopic micrograph of a cemented carbide having the composition WCOCO 0.9VC, solid-phase sintering at 1200 ° C. with a holding time of 90 min during production.

Claims

claims

A hard metal comprising a phase of hard material grains and a phase of a heterogeneously distributed binder metal, characterized in that the hard material grains have a mean grain size in the range of 1 nm to 1000 nm, preferably 50 nm to 500 nm, and the heterogeneously distributed binder metal in the hard metal in the shape of binder islands is present, which has an average size of 0.1 μιη to 10.0 μιη, preferably 0.2 μιη to 5.0 μιη, and an average distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μιη to 7.0 μιη, preferably 2.0 μιη to 5.0 μιη, and more preferably from 1.0 μιη to 4.0 μιη have.

Hard metal according to claim 1, characterized in that the average grain size of the phase of hard material grain in the range of 50 nm to 150 nm.

Carbide according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the hard phase comprises tungsten carbide.

Carbide according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the hard material in the hard material phase in monomodal form in terms of its chemical-elemental composition and / or in terms of its particle size distribution.

Cemented cement according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the binder islands comprise a metal selected from the group consisting of cobalt, iron, nickel and combinations thereof, preferably cobalt.

Cemented carbide according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the proportion of the binder based on the total weight of the cemented carbide is 2% by mass to 30% by mass, preferably 6% by mass to 15% by mass.

Carbide according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the hard material additionally comprises at least one pulverulent grain growth inhibitor selected from titanium carbide, vanadium carbide, chromium carbide, tantalum carbide, molybdenum carbide and mixtures thereof.

8. Cemented carbide according to claim 7, characterized in that the grain growth inhibitor in a proportion of 0.01% by mass to 5.0% by mass, preferably 0.01% by mass to 3.0% by mass, based on the total weight of Carbide is present.

9. carbide according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the hardness according to Vickers according to DIN ISO 3878 at least 1500 HV 10, preferably 1700 HV 10, and the fracture toughness, determined by the method of Shetty et al, J. Mater , Be. (1985), 20, 1873-1882, at least 6.0 MPa * m ^1/2 , preferably at least 8.0 MPa * m ^1/2 .

10. Cemented cement according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the binder islands are sufficiently small so that they counteract the crack propagation, but due to their size do not occur as a fracture-inducing defect.

11. A method of producing toughened cemented carbide comprising the steps of:

Providing a hard material powder, wherein the mean BET particle size of the hard material powder less than 1.0 μιη, preferably less than 0.5 μιη, is;

Mixing the hard material powder with a binder powder;

- Forming the mixture of hard material powder and binder powder to a

Green body; and

Sintering the green body;

characterized in that the sintering of the green body by solid phase sintering to a dense, non-porous hard metal occurs.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the hard material comprises tungsten carbide.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the hard material powder is in monomodal form in terms of its chemical-elemental composition and / or in terms of its particle size distribution.

14. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 13, characterized in that the solid phase sintering step is carried out by at least one of the following sintering methods: spark plasma sintering, Electrodischarge sintering, hot pressing, and / or gas pressure sintering, preferably in a gas pressure sintering furnace, and / or by a sintering HIP process.

15. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 14, characterized in that the sintering takes place at a temperature which is 10 K to 500 K, preferably 50 K to 250 K, below the eutectic melting temperature of the binder and the holding time 5 min to 480 min, preferably 20 min to 360 min.

16. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 15, wherein the hard metal having toughening structure after sintering has a phase of hard material grains and a phase of heterogeneously distributed binder metal, wherein the heterogeneously distributed binder metal is present in the cemented carbide in the form of binder islands, characterized in that the cemented carbide having a toughening structure obtained after sintering has binder islands with an average size of 0.1 μm to 10.0 μm, preferably 0.2 μm to 5.0 μm, and an average distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μm to 7.0 μιη, preferably 1.0 μιη to 4.0 μιη having.

17. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 16, characterized in that the binder powder from the group of metals consisting of cobalt, iron, nickel and combinations thereof, preferably cobalt is selected.

18. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 17, characterized in that the proportion of the binder powder based on the total weight of the powder mixture before molding to the green body 2.0 to 30.0% by mass, preferably 6.0 Ma -% to 15.0% by mass.

19. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 18, characterized in that sintering takes place under a vacuum of less than 100 mbar, preferably less than 50 mbar.

20. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 19, characterized in that after sintering an additional densification of the hard metal at a pressure of 20 bar to 200 bar, preferably 40 bar to 100 bar, is performed.

21. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 11 to 20, characterized in that the hard material powder additionally comprises at least one powdery grain growth inhibitor selected from vanadium carbide, chromium carbide, tantalum carbide, titanium carbide, molybdenum carbide and mixtures thereof.

22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the powdery grain growth inhibitor is present in a proportion of 0.01% by mass to 5.0% by mass based on the total weight of the powder mixture before shaping in the green body.

23. Hard metal having a Vickers hardness according to DIN ISO 3878 of at least 1500 HV 10, preferably of at least 1700 HV 10, and a fracture toughness determined by the method of Shetty et al., J. Mater. Be. (1985), 20, 1873-1 882, of at least 6.0 MPa * m ^1/2 , preferably of at least 8.0 MPa * m ^1/2 , obtained by the method according to one of the preceding claims 11 to 22.

24. carbide comprising a phase of hard material grains and a phase of a heterogeneously distributed binder metal, characterized in that the hard metal hard material grains having a mean grain size in the range of 1 nm to 1000 nm, preferably 100 nm to 500 nm, and the heterogeneously distributed Binder metal in the cemented carbide in the form of binder islands is present, and the binder islands a mean size of 0.1 μιη to 10.0 μιη, preferably 0.2 μιη to 5.0 μιη, and a mean distance between the binder islands of 1.0 μιη up to 7.0 μιη, preferably 2.0 μηι to 5.0 μηι, and more preferably from 1.0 μηι to 4.0 μηι, prepared by the method according to any one of claims 11 to 22nd

Use of a cemented carbide according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 10 and 23 to 24 as drills, solid carbide cutters, indexable inserts, saw teeth, forming tools, sealing rings, press dies, press dies and wearing parts.

Use of a cemented carbide according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 10 and 23 to 24 for the production of tools with specific and indefinite cutting edges, for the machining of materials of all kinds.