Introduction of tungsten carbide into 08Kh18N10T corrosion-resistant steel and its effect on mechanical properties

Interfacial phenomena and reactions between tungsten semicarbide (W₂C) and corrosion-resistant steel melt have been studied using wetting experiments. This process was followed by the method of high­temperature contact heating of W₂C substrate and a metal sample made of 08Kh18N10T steel. It was established that wolfram carbide has good indicators of wettability by corrosion-resistant steel, wetting angle is 135 – 145°. Composition of the substrate surface has been studied by electron scanning microscopy to determine composition of reaction products. Analysis of the obtained results allows us to state that content of chemical elements varies over the entire contact area, but pattern of their distribution there is uniform. Due to the obtained data we can make an assumption about the applicability of combination of these components to create dispersed-hardened materials. To this end, experiments have been carried out to produce dispersedly hardened centrifugal cast blanks with various types of casting – horizontal and vertical. To obtain experimental materials, the horizontal and vertical type centrifugal casting was introduced into tungsten semicarbide ingots in an amount of 1 % wt. After producing experimental materials, a number of mechanical properties were studied, such as tensile strength, yield strength and hardness. The experimental results allow us to conclude that the use of dispersed hardening in process of centrifugal casting makes it possible to obtain metal materials with increased mechanical properties. Indicators of ultimate strength increase (for all samples on average) by 2.49 %, yield strength – by 2.27 %, hardness – by 5.02 %, which correlates with the provisions on metals physico-chemical properties when using dispersed hardening technologies.

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