Tungsten carbide crystal lattice properties in WC-Co alloys manufacture process

The authors studied the dependence of the crystalline structure of tungsten carbide (WC) from the starting powder to the carbide phase of the final alloy in the process of manufacturing WC-Co alloys. The state of the crystalline lattice of the WC starting powders and of the WC-phase of caked alloys was assessed by the width of X-ray diffraction lines (after Laouer). Caking of the WC-Co mixture under standard conditions was shown to only partially eliminate the WC crystalline lattice distortions caused by crushing in the course of powder preparation. Due to the big influence of crushing, alloys, prepared on the basis of WC with various degrees of crystalline structure perfection, differ very little in regard to the state of the carbide phase lattice