Effect of cold swaging and heat treatment on properties of the P/M 91W-6Ni-3Co heavy alloy

This paper describes the effects of rotary swaging and heat treatment under different conditions on mechanical properties and microstructure of the P/M 91W-6Ni-3Co alloy. The investigation was performed on cold rotary swaging rods with 10, 20 and 25% reduction in area, heat treated at 11300C for 90min under different cooling conditions and strain-aged at temperatures from 300 to 8000C for 60, 180 and 360min. Tensile and toughness testing of rotary swaging rods showed that increase in the reduction resulted in intensive strengthening and toughness lowering. The results of tensile and toughness testing of heat treated rods have shown a decrease in strength, ductility and partly toughness in comparison with the mechanical properties of swaged alloys. The results of strain aged rods demonstrate that, for this cold rotary swaging alloy, there is a temperature range from 500 to 6000C for 60min in which the maximum ultimate strength and hardness may be attained