Electrical Discharged Coating by Spark Plasma Sintered Tungsten Porous Electrode

Abstract

 This paper describes a high hardness coating by spark plasma sintered tungsten porous electrode with an electrical discharge machine utilizing the electrical discharge machining phenomenon. The effect of the electrical discharge machining conditions, the relative density of the sintered material used as the tool electrode, and the particle size on the coating properties were investigated. By using porous tungsten as the tool electrode, a processed surface with a higher hardness was achieved. In addition, the lower the relative density, the higher was the Vickers hardness of the processed surface. SPS sintered tungsten was used, the larger the discharge current, the higher was the Vickers hardness of the processed surface. The larger the powder particle size of the SPS sintered tungsten was, the higher was the Vickers hardness of the processed surface.