Abstract
We combined Field-Activated Combustion Synthesis(FACS) with mechanical pressure to produce dense WC-20 vol.%Co composite in one step. The hardness, the fracture toughness and the relative density of the dense WC-20 vol.%Co were investigated. Under the application of 60 MPa pressure and 3000A current on the reactants, the relative density of WC-20 vol.%Co composite was 99.4%. The fracture toughness and hardness were $9.4 MPa.m^{1/2}$ and $1672kg\textrm{mm}^2$ respectively. The fracture toughness and hardness of WC-20 vol.%Co composite produced by FAPACS were lower than that of nanostructured composite, but similar to commercial ones. Therefore we concluded that the FAPACS method which can produce WC-20 vol.%Co within several minutes in one step is superior to conventional ones.
