Alternative hardmetals: Microstructures and properties

Hardmetals are probably the most important materials for the tooling industry. These are composite materials that combine hardness of a hard phase (usually carbide or carbonitride), with the ductility of a metallic binder. Among hardmetals, the combination WC-Co is by far the most used one, however, the position of cobalt as critical raw material together with increasingly restrictive health and safety regulations, pose the challenge of finding new material alternatives. This project undertakes the challenge by proposing a holistic evaluation of novel hardmetals which present different combinations of hardphases/metallic binders. The project is based on the hypothesis that the main characteristics of the final material can be manipulated by properly tuning the chemistry of the binder phase. Modelling tools will be used to accelerate the research on novel compositions, and its combination with experimental data will provide fundamental understanding on how the chemical composition of the metallic binder can influence the behavior of the hardphase and the properties of the composite material. In particular the growth of the hardphase particles during the processing stage is very important, as some of these materials must be industrially produced with near-nano microstructures. The project involves the design of novel binders with outstanding mechanical characteristics, the use of alternative hard phase and the analysis of grain growth of different hard phases in dependence to the binder chemistry. The design methodology used will allow us to capture the experimental data into software tools, which in the future will facilitate the prediction of links between chemical composition, processing routes, microstructures and properties, and thus the use of faster and more sustainable development cycles. A fruitful collaboration between modelling and experimental research groups will be established, covering expertise on production, advanced microstructural analysis, mechanical characterization and physical modelling. Together we will explore the field of alternative hardmetals starting from a fundamental understanding and ending with the development of tools to tailor the composition of novel materials to provide the required properties for targeted applications.