Journal of Microwave Power and
Electromagnetic Energy (JMPEE) |
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TITLE |
Microwave Sintering of W-18CU and W-7NI-3CU Alloys [PDF] |
AUTHORS |
Avijit
Mondal, Anish Upadhyaya and Dinesh Agrawal 2009 43 1 11-16 |
YEAR |
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VOLUME |
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ISSUE |
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PAGES |
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Abstract Microwave
processing is emerging as an innovative and highly effective material
processing method offering many advantages over conventional methods,
especially for sintering applications. It is recognized for its various
advantages, such as: time and energy saving, rapid heating rates,
considerably reduced processing cycle time and temperature, fine
microstructures and improved mechanical properties which lead to better
product performance. Major constraints in conventional sintering of
refractory material such as tungsten and its alloys are high sintering
temperatures and long soaking times which cause abnormal grain growth and
lead to poor mechanical properties. They get further aggravated at smaller
(submicron and nano) tungsten powder sizes. This study describes recent
research findings; W-18Cu and W-7Ni-3Cu alloys have been successfully
consolidated using microwave heating which resulted in an overall reduction
of sintering time of up to 80%. The microwave sintered samples exhibited
finer microstructure and superior mechanical properties when compared with
the conventional samples. Key Words; Tungsten heavy alloys, microwave sintering, microstructures |