Preparation of Iron Bonded Tungsten Carbide–Titanium Carbide Composites with Improved Microstructure for Designing Various Harder Components

Tungsten carbide/titanium carbide/iron composites (diameter 4.5-5 cm) in 0.5-kilogram scale were prepared using the argon arc plasma melting method. The composites were observed with a well-ordered crystalline structure. The microhardness and Young’s modulus values of different composites were found to vary in the range of 2018-4380 VHN and 590-789 GPa, respectively. In this work, the iron bonded (5 wt.%) with tungsten carbide–titanium carbide (8 wt.%) composite shows the highest microhardness and Young’s modulus values of 4380 VHN and 789 GPa, respectively. The typical WC + TiC 8 wt.% + Fe 5 wt.% composite showed significantly high bending strength and fracture toughness values of 2050 ± 48 MPa and 12.8 ± 1.2 MPa m^1/2, respectively. This composite showed improved microstructure with reduced defects as compared to melt-cast pure WC and WC + TiC 8 wt.% composite.