Pulvimetalurgia: Proceso sostenible para la fabricación de carburos cementados en Colombia

This paper presents the opportunity to promote the Colombian industry towards the development of new high performance materials manufactured by powder metallurgy (PM) as an alternative to the conventional manufacturing processes, generating new needs for the national industry. The objective of this work is describe the manufacturing processes of composite materials, type CERMET, formed by a CERAMIC phase, which is tungsten carbide (WC), and a METAL phase which is cobalt (Co). Additionally, analyze at microstructural level the manufactured materials using vacuum sintering process. The designed alloy was a mixture of 88% WC and 12% Co according to ISO K40 standard. The process involved the control of precursor materials, found in powder form, followed by mixing and milling steps, and finally compaction and sintering. The microstructures and chemical compositions obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) were studied in order to evaluate the mechanical behavior of the CerMet;for that, microhardness tests were performed reaching values of 1289HV0.5, which are related with the low porosity levels such as A02, B00, C00, and average grain size of 1.14 μm. These results indicate that is possible to manufacture wear resistance high performance materials in the country. It highlights the relevance of enhancing the synergy between government entities such as SENAColciencias -Universidad Nacional to create applied research in the country.