Method of making a submicron cemented carbide with increased toughness

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of making a cemented carbide with submicron grin WO grain size consisting of WO, 6-12 wt-% Co and 0.1-0.7 wt-% Cr using conventional powder metallurgical technique mixing, pressing and sintering. According to the method the WC-grains are coated with Cr prior to mixing. As a result a cemented carbide with improved properties is obtained.

Description: The present invention relates to a cemented carbide cutting tool insert, particularly useful for turning, milling and drilling in steels and stainless steels. Conventional cemented carbide inserts are produced by powder metallurgical methods including milling of a powder mixture forming the hard constituents and the binder phase, pressing and sintering. The milling operation is an intensive milling in mills of different sizes and with the aid of milling bodies. The milling time is of the order of several hours up to several days. Such processing is believed to be necessary in order to obtain a uniform distribution of the binder phase in the milled mixture. It is further believed that the intensive milling creates a reactivity of the mixture, which further promotes the formation of a dense structure. However, milling has its disadvantages. During the long milling time the milling bodies are worn and contaminate the milled mixture. Furthermore even after an extended milling a random rather than an ideal homogeneous mixture may be obtained. Thus, the properties of the sintered cemented carbide containing two or more components depend on how the starting materials are mixed. There exist alternative technologies to intensive milling for production of cemented carbide. For example, particles can be coated with binder phase metal. The coating methods include fluidised bed methods, solgel techniques, electrolytic coating, PVD coating or other methods such as disclosed in e.g. GB 346,473, US 5,529,804 or US 5,505,902. Coated carbide particles can be mixed with additional amounts of cobalt and other carbide powders to obtain the desired final material composition, pressed and sintered to a dense structure. US 5,993,730 discloses a method of coating carbide particles with V, Cr, Ti, Ta or Nb. During metal cutting operations like turning, milling and drilling the general properties such as hardness, resistance against plastic deformation, resistance against formation of thermal fatigue cracks are to a great extent related to the volume fraction of the hard phases and the binder phase in the sintered cemented carbide body. It is well known that increasing the amount of the binder phase reduces the resistance to plastic deformation. Different cutting conditions require different properties of the cutting insert. When cutting in steels with raw surface zones (e.g. rolled, forged or cast) a coated cemented carbide insert must consist of tough cemented carbide. When turning, milling or drilling in low alloyed steels or stainless steels the adhesive wear is generally the dominating wear type. Measures can be taken to improve the cutting performance with respect to a specific wear type. However, very often such action will have a negative effect on other wear properties. It has now surprisingly been found that cemented carbide inserts made from powder mixtures with Cr-coated submicron hard constituents and without conventional milling have excellent toughness performance for machining of steels and stainless steels. The method according to the invention of making cemented carbide is set out in claim 1, with preferred embodiments in dependent claims 2-4. Cemented carbide inserts produced according to the method of the invention are provided with excellent toughness properties for machining of steels and stainless steels; the inserts consist of WC and 6-12 wt-% Co, preferably 8-11 wt-% Co, most preferably 9.5-10.5 wt-% Co and 0.1-0.7 wt-% Cr, preferably 0.2-0.5 wt-% Cr. The WC-grains have an average grain size in the range 0.2-1.0 µm, preferably 0.6-0.9 µm. The microstructure of the cemented carbide produced according to the method of to the invention is further characterised in a grain size distribution of WC in the range 0-1.5 µm. The amount of W dissolved in the binder phase is controlled by adjustment of the carbon content by small additions of carbon black or pure tungsten powder. The W-content in the binder phase can be expressed as the "CW-ratio" defined as CW-ratio = M S / (wt-% Co * 0.0161) where M S is the measured saturation magnetization of the sintered cemented carbide body in kA/m and wt-% Co is the weight percentage of Co in the cemented carbide. The CW-ratio in inserts according to the invention shall be 0.80-1.0, preferably 0.80-0.90. The sintered inserts produced according to the method of present invention are used coated or uncoated, preferably coated with conventional PVD (TiCN + TiN) or PVD (TiN). According to the method of the present invention coated WC-powder with submicron grain size distribution is wet mixed without milling with binder metal and pressing agent, dried preferably by spray drying, pressed to inserts and sintered. WC-powder with grain size distributions according to the method of the invention with eliminated coarse grain tails >1.5 µm is prepared by milling and sieving such as in a jetmill-classifier. It is essential according to the invention that the mixing takes place without milling i.e. there should be no change in grain size or grain size distribution as a result of the mixing. According to the method of the present invention the submicron hard constituents are after careful deagglomeration coated with a grain growth inhibitor metal such as Cr, V, Mo, W, preferably Cr using methods disclosed in US 5,993,730 and optionally an iron group binder metal, preferably Co using methods disclosed in patent US 5,529,804. In such case the cemented carbide powder according to the invention consists preferably of Cr-coated or optionally Cr + Co coated WC, possibly with further additions of Co-powder in order to obtain the desired final composition. Example 1 Cemented carbide tool inserts of the type N151.2-400-4E, an insert for parting, with the composition WC-0.4 wt-% Cr-10.0 wt-% Co with a grain size of 0.8 µm were produced according to the invention. Chromium and cobalt coated WC-0.44 wt-% Cr-2.0 wt-% Co, prepared according to US 5,993,730 and US 5,529,804 resp. was mixed with additional amounts of Co to obtain the desired material composition. The mixing was carried out in ethanol(0.25 l fluid per kg cemented carbide powder) for 2 hours in a laboratory mixer and the batch size was 10 kg. Furthermore 2 wt-% lubricant was added to the slurry. The carbon content was adjusted with carbon black to a binder phase alloyed with W corresponding to a CW-ratio of 0.85. After spray drying, the inserts were pressed and sintered according to standard practise and dense structures with porosity A00 and hardness HV3=1550 were obtained. Example 2 Cemented carbide tool inserts of the type N151.2-400-4E were produced in the same way as in Example 1 but from chromium and cobalt coated WC-0.22 wt-% Cr-2.0 wt-% Co and with a final powder composition of WC-0.2 wt-% Cr-10.0 wt-% Co. The same physical properties (porosity A00 and HV3=1550) as in Example 1 were obtained. Example 3 Cemented carbide tool inserts of the type N151.2-400-4E were produced in the same way as in Example 1 but from chromium coated WC-0.44 wt-% Cr and with a final powder composition of WC-0.4 wt-% Cr-10.0 wt-% Co. The same physical properties (porosity A00 and HV3=1550) as in Example 1 were obtained. Example 4 Cemented carbide tool inserts of the type N151.2-400-4E were produced in the same way as in Example 1 but from chromium coated WC-0.22 wt-% Cr and with a final powder composition of WC-0.2 wt-% Cr-10.0 wt-% Co. The same physical properties (porosity A00 and HV3=1550) as in Example 1 were obtained. Example 5 Prior Art Cemented carbide standard tool inserts of the type N151.2-400-4E were produced with the same chemical composition, average grain size of WC and CW-ratio as in Example 1 but from powder manufactured with the conventional ball milling techniques. The same physical properties (porosity A00 and HV3=1550) as in Example 1 were obtained. Example 6 Prior Art Cemented carbide standard tool inserts of the type N151.2-400-4E were produced with the same chemical composition, average grain size of WC and CW-ratio as in Example 1 but from powder manufactured with the conventional ball milling techniques and with the powder composition WC-0.2 wt-% Cr-10.0 wt-% Co. Initial abnormal grain growth and reduction in hardness compared to Example 1 (porosity A00 and HV3=1500) were obtained. Example 7 Sintered inserts from Examples 1-6 were treated in a standard PVD (TiCN + TiN) coating process with all inserts charged in the same coating batch. Coated inserts according to the invention from Examples 1-4 were compared in toughness behaviour against coated reference inserts from Examples 5-6 in a technological parting test. The test data were: Operation: Parting off 3 mm thick discs from a bar Material: SS1672, diameter 46 mm Cutting data: Speed= 150 m/min Feed= 0.33 mm/rev diameter 46 - 8 mm Feed= 0.05 mm/rev diameter 8 - 4 mm Feed= 0.03 mm/rev diameter 4 - 0 mm Number of subtests (edges): 3 Evaluation of toughness: Number of cuts before fracture Results Example No. of cuts 1 220 2 270 3 210 4 280 5 (prior art) 180 6 (prior art) 160

Claims: Method of making a cemented carbide from submicron WC-grains having an average grain size in the range 0.2-1.0 µm, said cemented carbide consisting of WC, 6-12 wt-% Co and 0.1-0.7 wt-% Cr, by using a conventional powder metallurgical technique of mixing, pressing and sintering, characterised in that the WC-grains are coated with Cr prior to mixing, and that there is no change in average grain size or grain size distribution as a result of the mixing. Method according to the previous claim characterised in that the WC grains are also coated by Co prior to mixing. Method according to any of the previous claims characterised in that the cemented carbide has a composition WC, 8-11 wt-% Co and 0.2-0.5 wt-% Cr. Method according to any of the previous claims characterised in that the cemented carbide has a CW-ratio of 0.8-0.9 where CW-ratio is defined as CW-ratio = M S / (wt-% Co * 0.0161) where M S is the saturation magnetization of the sintered cemented carbide in kA/m and wt-% Co is the weight percentage of Co in the cemented carbide.

Inventors: WALDENSTROEM MATS, WALDENSTROEM, MATS, Waldenström, Mats
Applicants: SANDVIK AB, SANDVIK AKTIEBOLAG
Application year: 2000
Main classification: C22C1
IPC codes: C22C1, B23B27, C22C29, B23P15, B22F1, B23C5, B23B51