Method of making cermet or cemented carbide powder

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method of making a powder of dense and spherically shaped cemented carbide or cermet granules. The present disclosure also relates to a powder produced by the method and use of said powder in additive manufacturing such as 3D printing by the binder jetting technique. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to a Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) process for manufacturing a product by using said powder.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A powder of cermet or cemented carbide made according to a method of:
 (a) forming spherically shaped granules comprising metal, hard constituents and organic binder;   (b) mixing said spherically shaped granules with a sintering inhibitor powder to form a mixture of spherically shaped granules and sintering inhibitor powder, the sintering inhibitor powder including carbon;   (c) loading the mixture of spherically shaped granules and sintering inhibitor powder in a furnace chamber;   (d) heat-treating the mixture obtained in step (b) in the furnace chamber at a sintering temperature to remove the organic binder from the spherically shaped granules and to sinter the hard constituents with the metal in each spherically shaped granule and thereby forming a mixture of sintered dense spherically shaped granules and sintering inhibitor powder;   (e) unloading the mixture of sintered dense spherically shaped granules and sintering inhibitor powder from the furnace chamber; and   (f) separating the sintering inhibitor powder from the sintered dense spherically shaped granules whereby a powder of dense and spherically shaped cermet or cemented carbide granules is formed.   
     
     
         2 . The powder of  claim 1 , wherein the sintering inhibitor powder is an oxide. 
     
     
         3 . The powder of  claim 2 , wherein the sintering inhibitor powder is an yttrium oxide. 
     
     
         4 . The powder of  claim 1 , wherein the sintering inhibitor powder is inhibitor carbon. 
     
     
         5 . The powder of  claim 4 , wherein the sintering inhibitor powder is graphite. 
     
     
         6 . The powder of  claim 5 , wherein the powder is used in Additive Manufacturing. 
     
     
         7 . The powder of  claim 1 , wherein the powder is used in a HIP application. 
     
     
         8 . A process for manufacturing a component comprising the following steps:
 (a) providing a powder in accordance with  claim 1 ;   (b) providing a form;   (c) filling the form with the powder;   (d) evacuating air from the form;   (e) sealing the form; and   (f) subjecting the form to Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) at a predetermined temperature, a predetermined pressure and for a predetermined time so that the powder bonds metallurgically and a solid body is formed, wherein the form is made of an alloy of zirconium or an alloy of titanium.   
     
     
         9 . The process according to  claim 8 , wherein the powder has a continuous particle size distribution in the range of from 1 to 500 μm. 
     
     
         10 . The process according to  claim 8 , wherein the predetermined temperature is above 900° C. 
     
     
         11 . The process according to  claim 8 , wherein the predetermined pressure is above 500 bar. 
     
     
         12 . The process according to  claim 8 , wherein said process is used for manufacturing a cemented carbide or cermet.