Recycling of WC-Co from scrap materials

WC-Co scrap generated by the cutting tool industries was electrochemically broken down to cobalt, which was deposited at the cathode and a mixture of tungsten oxide and tungstic acid was collected at the anode with an overall recovery efficiency of about 90%. The tungsten oxide/tungstic acid was reduced to produce nanostructural tungsten powders, which were subsequently carburised and chemically coated with cobalt to produce WC-Co powders. The powders synthesised were characterised for purity and size. The WC-Co powders, thus obtained were consolidated to near theoretical densities using a novel plasma pressure compaction ((PC)-C-2) technique. The microhardness of the consolidated sample was measured to be 2200 HV, which is 20% higher than the reported literature values. (C) 2002 IoM Communications Ltd.