PRINTABLE AND SINTERABLE CEMENTED CARBIDE AND CERMET POWDERS FOR POWDER BED-BASED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Disclosed herein is a method of that densifies spherodized granules having tungsten carbide and a metallic binder phase in a plasma, thereby producing densified spherodized granules.
1 . A method comprising:
a. densifying spherodized granules comprising tungsten carbide and a metallic binder phase in a plasma, thereby producing densified spherodized granules.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises at least about 75 wt % of tungsten carbide.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises at least about 80 wt % of tungsten carbide.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises at least about 2 wt % of the metallic binder phase.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises at least about 10 wt % of the metallic binder phase.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises from about 80 wt % to about 85 wt % of tungsten carbide and from about 10 wt % to about 15 wt % of the metallic binder phase.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises at least about 2 wt % of carbon.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules comprises from about 85 wt % to about 96 wt % of tungsten carbide, from about 4 wt % to about 15 wt % of the metallic binder phase.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metallic binder phase comprises Cr, Mo, Fe, Co, or Ni, or a combination thereof.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metallic binder phase comprises Co.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules has a particle size of D90 of less than 50 μm.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules has a particle size of D90 of less than 35 μm.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the densified spherodized granules has a bulk density of at least 4 g/cm 3 .
14 . A powder mixture for three-dimensional printing comprising the densified spherodized granules produced in claim 1 .
15 . A method comprising:
a. 3D printing a body from a composition comprising the powder mixture of claim 14 and a printing binder.
16 . (canceled)
17 . (canceled)
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the composition comprises at least about 60% saturation of the printing binder.
19 . (canceled)
20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the composition comprises at least about 60% saturation of the powder mixture.
21 . (canceled)
22 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises the step of sintering the body, thereby producing a cemented carbide body or a cermet body.
23 . (canceled)
24 . (canceled)
25 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the cemented carbide body or the cermet body has a relative density of at least 99.9% theoretical density.
26 . (canceled)
27 . (canceled)
28 . (canceled)
29 . (canceled)
30 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the cemented carbide body or the cermet body has a fracture toughness of at least 16 Mpa m 3/2 .
31 .- 37 . (canceled)