Abstract
The present work was undertaken for better understanding of the basic processes involved in the recovering of carbides from sintered hard metals, and the interaction between Co-bonded tungsten carbide and molten zinc has been studied in the temperature range 480°-900°C. Techniques used for analyzing the obtained diffusion layers are EPMA, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction.
The reaction layers are characterized by lamellar structures consisted of alternative WC and metal layers. The structure of the reaction layer and the interlamellar spacing are remarkably influenced by heating temperature and cooling condition but not by heating time. A tentative mechanism of the formation of lamellar structures has been proposed based on the experimental results.
