Carbide Design in Wear Resistant Powder Materials
One area where powder metallurgy has proven to be superior to other means of manufacturing is wear resistant structures. Highly wear resistant high speed steel powders are commonly used in both HIPped and pressed and sintered forms. The carbide size and structure obtained depends both on production conditions and carbide type but the carbide types are fixed by the alloy composition. Alternative carbides have different properties and can be introduced in new alloy compositions. This paper presents the development of a new material where the carbides are designed to be of the most useful type for a sintered tool steel. A mix of small hard carbides and larger less hard carbides in a matrix capable of being hardened gives a good combination of properties. In some applications, the properties achieved are more effective than those obtained from the pressed and sintered M3/2 and M2 currently in use.