| Abstract Scope |
Tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) is a cermet with excellent combination of hardness, provided by WC grains, and toughness, provided by the Co-matrix. Traditionally, WC-Co parts are formed through powder metallurgy. WC and Co powders are pressed to a low-density part, which is de-waxed, sintered and hot-isostatic-pressed (HIP). However, this demands mass production to justify mold creation, resulting in a slow and expensive process. Additive Manufacturing, particularly binder jet 3D-printing (BJ3DP) appeared as an option to supplement traditional WC-Co manufacturing, allowing the production of fast and detailed parts. A design of experiments was schemed to find the optimal printing parameters to form parts with high green densities, translating to high hardness and toughness. The highest green densities were obtained with a 220% binder saturation, 45 s drying time, 100 µm layer thickness, 5 mm/s roller speed, and a build-to-feed ratio of 2. Sintered-HIPed parts resulted in 99% density and 1286 HV hardness. |