Failure Analysis of a Ball Milling Machine, Used for the Preparation of Cemented Carbide Composites

Ball milling is a key processing step in the manufacture of cemented carbide. That process is widely used at different scales: both industrial applications and laboratory experimentations. A bowl from the milling machine has however exploded during its use, leading to the destruction of the milling machine lid, the scattering of the powder that was milled, and a delay in the further experiments of the lab. The material to be milled was a mixture of high-entropy alloy aimed for use as a binder in tungsten carbide composite materials. The failure analysis study has been achieved with conventional methods such as x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence, microstructures (by optical and scanning electron microscopies), and hardness testing.