The life of cutting tool inserts is critically important for efficient machining, reducing manufacturing cost, embedded energy, and enabling more complex parts to be machined. For these applications, cemented carbide (WC-Co) materials are a prime candidate. The performance of these materials can be limited by early fracture, typically via an intergranular fracture path with respect to carbide grains. This motivates further studies to understand the character of the grain boundary network so that grain boundary engineering (GBE) of WC-Co tools can be used to improve tool life and performance. In this work, we have used Rohrer et al.'s five-parameter grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) analysis to examine the grain boundary network of WC-10wt%Co and WC-10wt%Co-1wt%Cr samples (Rohrer et al., 2004a [1]). It was found that the measured area fraction of the Σ2 boundaries was comparable to the values reported in the literature despite the relatively larger grain sizes (∼14 μm) and higher cobalt contents. The result suggests that chromium doping increases the area fraction of Σ2 boundaries from 12.8 % to 14.8 %. It is proposed that this is a consequence of altering the Σ2 boundary energy, as associated with adding chromium.

中文翻译：

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铬掺杂对 WC-Co 晶界特性的影响


切削工具刀片的使用寿命对于高效加工、降低制造成本、嵌入能源以及加工更复杂的零件至关重要。对于这些应用，硬质合金 （WC-Co） 材料是主要候选材料。这些材料的性能可能会受到早期断裂的限制，通常是通过相对于碳化物晶粒的晶间断裂路径。这促使进一步研究以了解晶界网络的特性，以便 WC-Co 工具的晶界工程 （GBE） 可用于提高工具寿命和性能。在这项工作中，我们使用 Rohrer 等人的五参数晶界特征分布 （GBCD） 分析来检查 WC-10wt%Co 和 WC-10wt%Co-1wt%Cr 样品的晶界网络（Rohrer 等人，2004a [1]）。结果发现，尽管晶粒尺寸相对较大 （∼14 μm） 且钴含量较高，但 Σ2 晶界的测量面积分数与文献中报道的值相当。结果表明，铬掺杂使 Σ2 晶界的面积分数从 12.8 % 增加到 14.8 %。有人提出，这是改变 Σ2 边界能的结果，与添加铬有关。