• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.372-378
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• 2016

This study focuses on the development of an alkaline leaching hydrometallurgy process for the recovery of tungsten from WC/Co hardmetal sludge, and an examination of the effect of the process parameters on tungsten recovery. The alkaline leaching hydrometallurgy process has four stages, i.e., oxidation of the sludge, leaching of tungsten by NaOH, refinement of the leaching solution, and precipitation of tungsten. The WC/Co hardmetal sludge oxide consists of $WO_3$ and $CoWO_4$. The leaching of tungsten is most affected by the leaching temperature, followed by the NaOH concentration and the leaching time. About 99% of tungsten in the WC/Co hardmetal sludge is leached at temperatures above $90^{\circ}C$ and a NaOH concentration above 15%. For refinement of the leaching solution, pH control of the solution using HCl is more effective than the addition of $Na_2S{\cdot}9H_2O$. The tungsten is precipitated as high-purity $H_2WO_4{\cdot}H_2O$ by pH control using HCl. With decreasing pH of the solution, the tungsten recovery rate increases and then decrease. About 93% of tungsten in the WC/Co hardmetal sludge is recovered by the alkaline leaching hydrometallurgy process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.761-762
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• 2006

W-Cu alloy was very useful material for a heat sink, high electric contact and EDM electrode. Powder injection molding (PIM) is the optimum manufacturing technology to provide W-Cu components with low-cost and high-volume. We used various compositions of tungsten coated copper powders (W-Cu with 10 to 80 wt-% of copper) to manufacture W-Cu components by PIM. The optimum mixing, injection molding, debinding and sintering conditions to provide the high performance W-Cu components were investigated. The thermal and mechanical properties of W-Cu parts by PIM were measured. Finally, we can verify the high performance of W-Cu components by PIM with the tungsten coated copper.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.12 no.2 s.49
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• pp.112-116
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• 2005

In the present study, the focus is on the analysis of carbothermal reduction of oxide powder prepared from waste WC/Co hardmetal by solid carbon under a stream of argon for the recycling of the WC/Co hard-metal. The oxide powder was prepared by the combination of the oxidation and crushing processes using the waste $WC-8 wt.\%Co$ hardmetal as the raw material. This oxide powder was mixed with carbon black, and then this mixture was carbothermally reduced under a flowing argon atmosphere. The changes in the phase structure and gases discharge of the mixture during carbothermal reduction was analysed using XRD and gas analyzer. The oxide powder prepared from waste $WC-8wt.\%Co$ hardmetal has a mixture of $WO_{3} and CoWO_{4}$. This oxide powder reduced at about $850^{\circ}C$, formed tungsten carbides at about $950^{\circ}C$, and then fully transformed to a mixed state of tungsten carbide (WC) and cobalt at about $1100^{\circ}C$ by solid carbon under a stream of argon. The WC/Co composite powder synthesized at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 6 hours from oxide powder of waste $WC-8wt.\%Co$ hardmetal has an average particle size of $0.3 {\mu}m$.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.369-375
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• 2004

A new concept of tungsten heavy alloy composite was suggested and manufactured in this study for the kinetic energy penetrator. The composite heavy alloy was composed of two parts, the center was molybdenum added heavy alloy compositions which were designed to promote the self-sharpening effect and outside was conventional heavy alloy in order to sustain the severe stress condition in the muzzle during the firing. The center part showed an intergranular and brittle mode at tungsten/tungsten interfaces by which self-sharpening effect could be activated. On the other hand, that of outside showed conventional ductile fracture mode under high strain rate condition. From the sub-scale penetration test, the depth of penetration in heavy alloy composites showed greater values than those of conventional tungsten heavy alloys. It is suggested that the heavy alloy composite could be considered as one of the future penetrator materials.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2019

The gas sensor is essential to monitoring dangerous gases in our environment. Metal oxide (MO) gas sensors are primarily utilized for flammable, toxic and organic gases and $O_3$ because of their high sensitivity, high response and high stability. Tungsten oxides ($WO_3$) have versatile applications, particularly for gas sensor applications because of the wide bandgap and stability of $WO_3$. Nanosize $WO_3$ are synthesized using the hydrothermal method. As-prepared $WO_3$ nanopowders are in the form of nanorods and nanorulers. The crystal structure is hexagonal tungsten bronze ($MxWO_3$, x =< 0.33), characterized as a tunnel structure that accommodates alkali ions and the phase stabilizer. A gas detection test reveals that $WO_3$ can detect acetone, butanol, ethanol, and gasoline. This is the first study to report this capability of $WO_3$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.652-653
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• 2006

This paper introduces a special spheroidizing technology at ultra-high temperature. The conventional cast tungsten carbide (YZ) is melted at high temperature, rapidly cooled and spheroidized on a new ultra-high temperature spheroidizing equipment to prepare various grades WSC powders.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2022

Tungsten carbide is widely used in carbide tools. However, its production process generates a significant number of end-of-life products and by-products. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient recycling methods and investigate the remanufacturing of tungsten carbide using recycled materials. Herein, we have recovered 99.9% of the tungsten in cemented carbide hard scrap as tungsten oxide via an alkali leaching process. Subsequently, using the recovered tungsten oxide as a starting material, tungsten carbide has been produced by employing a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) method. SHS is advantageous as it reduces the reaction time and is energy-efficient. Tungsten carbide with a carbon content of 6.18 wt % and a particle size of 116 nm has been successfully synthesized by optimizing the SHS process parameters, pulverization, and mixing. In this study, a series of processes for the high-efficiency recycling and quality improvement of tungsten-based materials have been developed.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.338-342
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• 2012

A novel chemical method was evaluated to fabricate the ultrafine tungsten heavy alloy powders with bater-base solution made from the ammonium metatungstate (AMT), iron(II) chloride tetrahydrate ($FeCl_2{\cdot}4H_2O$), nickel(II) chloride hexahydrate ($NiCl_2{\cdot}6H_2O$) as source materials and the sodium tungstate dihydrate ($NaWO_4{\cdot}2H_2O$) as Cl-reductant. In the preparation of mixtures the amounts of the source components were chosen so as to obtain alloy of 93W-5Ni-2Fe composition(wt.%). The obtained powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, XRF, field-emission scanning microscope (FESEM), and chemical composition was analyzed by EDX.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.422-423
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• 2006

Ultrasonic-milling of metal oxide nanopowders for the preparation of tungsten heavy alloys was investigated. Milling time was selected as a process variable. XRD results of metal oxide nanopowders ultrasonic-milled for 50 and 100h showed that mean crystallite size reduced with increasing milling time and there was no evidence of contamination or change of composition by impurities. It was found that nanocomposite powders reduced at $800^{\circ}C$ in $H_2$ atmosphere had a composition of 93.1W-4.9Ni-2.0Fe by EDX analysis. Hardness of sintered samples of 50 and 100h was 390 and 463 Hv, respectively, which corresponds to the hardness of commercial products.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.403-409
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• 2009

Plasma spray forming is recently explored as a near-net-shape fabrication route for ultra-high temperature metals and ceramics. In this study, monolithic tungsten has been produced using an atmospheric plasma spray forming and subsequent high temperature sintering. The spray-formed tungsten preform from different processing parameters has been evaluated in terms of metallurgical aspects, such as density, oxygen content and hardness. A well-defined lamellae structure was formed in the as-sprayed deposit by spreading of completely molten droplets, with incorporating small amounts of unmelted/partially-melted particles. Plasma sprayed tungsten deposit had 84-87% theoretical density and 0.2-0.3 wt.% oxygen content. Subsequent sintering at 2500$^{\circ}C$ promoted the formation of equiaxed grain structure and the production of dense preform up to 98% theoretical density.