Dependence of residual thermal stress in cermets on the sintering technique

The effects of representative sintering techniques on the residual thermal stress (RTS) in the as-prepared cermets were investigated using the WC-Co composites as an example. The real processing parameters of the spark plasma sintering (SPS) and sinter-hot isostatic pressing (Sinter-HIP) techniques were introduced to quantify RTS and its mechanisms. The real microstructures of cermets were used in the models for evaluation of RTS distributions in different phases. The macro-mesoscale coupled calculations indicated that during the cooling of both the SPS and Sinter-HIP processes, the WC phase of the sintered cermets has a state of compressive stress, while Co phase has a tensile stress state. The internal stress magnitude of both phases increases linearly with the decrease of temperature. There are larger temperature and displacement fields in the SPSed cermets compared to those prepared by Sinter-HIP. The stress accumulation in the SPS process is faster than that in the Sinter-HIP by 30%. The RTS in the SPSed cermets is highly concentrated at the acute dihedral angles of WC/Co interfaces, which tends to promote the face-centred cubic (fcc) to hexagonal close-packed (hcp) martensitic transformation of the Co phase.