Transient Liquid-Phase Sintering Characteristic of W-Ni-Fe Alloy via Microwave-Assisted Heating

The transient liquid-phase densification behavior and the mechanical performance of W-Ni-Fe alloy were investigated. This results show that the excellent mechanical properties and the quick densification of 93W-Ni-Fe alloy can be obtained via the microwave-assisted sintering approach in a 2.45 GHz microwave furnace. The tensile strength, the elongation, the relative density and the hardness (HRC) of samples are 1200 MPa, 16.6%, 98.6% and 42.0, respectively after the compacts are sintered at 1500 degrees C for only 5 min. The compacts can be successfully sintered in a microwave furnace with above 80% reduction in the overall processing time. Transient liquid-phase sintering by microwave-assisted heating is beneficial to saving of a lot of sintering time and accelerating of densification process, which results in W grains refinement, homogeneous microstructure and high comprehensive performances of W-Ni-Fe alloy.