The WC-Co cemented carbide also called hardmetal is a material of great technological importance, currently produced by powder metallurgy by liquid phase sintering, starting from the mixture of powdered tungsten carbide (WC) and cobalt (Co) using conventional mill. Seeking to obtain materials with higher capacity (productivity, life, etc.), an alternative route for powder metallurgy called High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) has been used for the production of these materials with promising results. The main aim of this work is the phases analysis of the WC-10Co doped with rare-earths (La2O3, CeO2,and Y2O3) obtained under high pressure. This hardmetal alloy is an example of the composite material widely used as cutting tool and machining processes in general. Several WC-10Co mixtures containing up to 2 wt % La2O3,CeO2and Y2O3 of the cobalt phase were prepared. The mixed powders were pressed at 800 MPa in a cylindrical matrix (Φ = 7 mm) and sintered at 1400ºC during 40 s under high pressure (5.5 GPa). The identification of the crystalline phases was done by X-ray diffraction. In addition, comparative analysis between the free rare-earth and doped with rare-earths elements (La2O3, CeO2 and Y2O3) carbides was done. The results showed that, within the conditions studied during the sintering process, formation, even, small amounts, of the phases Co3W3C2 and γ (ε carbide type) were observed in the carbide pieces studied.
Hardmetal; rare-earth; high pressure; XRD
