Original Research PaperMicrostructure and abrasive behaviors of TiC-316L composites prepared by warm compaction and microwave sintering
Introduction
316L stainless steel is widely used in medical treatment field, food profession, and chemical industry because of its excellent corrosion and oxidation resistance and good formability. However, application of this material is hindered by its low mechanical strength and poor anti-friction properties [1], [2], [3]. In order to improve its mechanical properties, many authors have studied the effect of different approaches to strengthening stainless steel [4], [5], [6]. As one way to improve their mechanical properties, composite materials were developed using ceramic particles (e.g., Y2O3, SiC, Al2O3, TiB2, and TiC) as reinforcement. Among these hard ceramic particles, TiC particles are believed to be a suitable reinforcements for steel matrix composites due to their high hardness, low density, good wetability, and their relative stability with steel matrix [7], [8], [9].
Powder metallurgy (PM) is thought to be the most common production technique for ceramic particles reinforced composites [6], [10]. One of the advantages of PM compared to other methods is having better control on the microstructure, where better distribution of the reinforcements is possible in PM compacts [11]. However, in order to achieve the best performance, conventional PM processing of composites requires long time sintering at high temperatures, which results in an excessive grain coarsening and leads to subsequent loss of mechanical properties [12].
Compared with conventional sintering, microwave sintering presents unique advantages, which include saved energy, enhanced densification, and suppressed grain growth owing to very rapid heating rates and cycles [13], [14]. Therefore, microwave sintering as preparation processing of stainless steel composites has the potential of enhanced mechanical properties. Padmavathi et al. [15] have reported that stainless steel composites can be effectively sintered using microwave. They pointed out that microwave sintering results in higher densification and a relatively refined microstructure in 316L stainless steel composites compared with conventional sintering. Panda et al. [16] analyzed the effect of conventional and microwave sintering on the properties of YAG-dispersed austenitic stainless steel. Their analysis showed that 316L stainless steel composites can be prepared by microwave sintering and have a superior mechanical and tribological response.
Though microwave sintering has been successfully applied to develop stainless steel composites, however, the compactness of green compact before sintering has a great effect on the final density and mechanical properties of sintered composites. Generally, green compact is achieved by conventional cold compaction method. Compared with cold compaction, warm compaction can obtain green compacts with higher relative density under a lower pressure [17]. Therefore, the combination of warm compaction and microwave sintering as preparation process of stainless steel composites has good potential for enhanced densification and mechanical properties. However, little work has been done on the ceramic particles reinforced composites prepared by combining warm compaction and microwave sintering.
The aim of the present paper is to address the microstructure and abrasive behaviors of 316L stainless steel composites prepared by warm compaction and microwave sintering. We also attempt to compare the microstructure and mechanical properties of conventional and microwave sintered 316L stainless steel composites formed by the cold compaction and warm compaction methods, respectively. The effect of TiC particles addition on the microstructure and properties of 316L stainless steel composites is also investigated.
Section snippets
Experimental procedure
The raw material used were gas-atomized 316L (C: 0.02; Si: 0.90; Mn: 0.15; Ni: 13.00; Cr: 16.50; Mo: 2.20; S: 0.008; P: 0.01; and Fe: bal) stainless steel (CISRI, China) and TiC (Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Group Co. Ltd., China) powders. The 316L stainless steel powder and composite powders contained 2, 5, 10, and 15 wt.% TiC were prepared by dry-mixed process in stainless steel containers for 120 min. The whole process was carried out using Ar as shrouding environment to avoid oxidation during
Densification of the green compacts
Fig. 1 shows the cross-section feature of the green compacts obtained by different compacted methods before sintering. As can be seen, the green compact obtained by warm compaction exhibits better density compared with the green compact obtained by cold compaction. Ref. [18] revealed that the yield strength of material tend to decrease with increasing temperature. When the temperature was raised to 130 °C, the yield strength of stainless steel drops to 80% of room temperature value. It can be
Conclusions
The green compact obtained by warm compaction exhibits better density compared with the green compact obtained by cold compaction due to the increase of plastic deformation capability of 316L stainless steel matrix powders during warm compaction.
The sample prepared by warm compaction and microwave sintering exhibits significantly superior densification and better abrasive resistance, less volume loss than that of the sample prepared by other technical routes.
The relative density, hardness and
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the National High-Tech Program (863) of China (2007AA03Z115) and the Cooperation Program between School and Enterprises of Huangshi Science and Technology Bureau (2010A1019-5) for financial support. The authors also thank the Hubei Provincial Key Discipline (Mechanical and Electronic Engineering) in Huangshi Institute of Technology.
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