Effects of pretreatments of W-Cu mixed powders on the sinterability of those compacts

Effects of an addition of sintering enhancement element (Co or Ni) were examined through the ball milling or simple mixing process to obtain full dense W-Cu alloy compacts at lower temperature. When using ball milled powders, the effects of 1wt% Ni was distinguished; by sintering above 1200°C the compacts of with 5wt% Cu were densified close to the theoretical values, and more than 10wt% Cu was required, however, to obtain the same density in the case of Co addition. And in this case, the microstructures of these compacts showed that Cu phase was uniformly dispersed among W particles through sintering process. When using simply mixed powders, Co was appreciably effective on the densification, whereas Ni was ineffective. And in this case the microstructures showed large Cu particles of irregular shape.