Materials Science Forum Submitted: 2016-11-10

ISSN: 1662-9752, Vol. 890, pp 348-351 Accepted: 2016-11-17

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.890.348 Online: 2017-03-20
© 2017 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

Improving Mechanical Properties of Co-Cr-W Alloys

by Powder Metallurgy
Choncharoen Sawangrat a and Komgrit Leksakulb
Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
a
choncharoen@step.cmu.ac.th, bkomgrit@eng.cmu.ac.th

Keywords: mechanical properties, Co-Cr-W alloy, powder metallurgy

Abstract. This study focuses on improving the mechanical properties of Co-Cr-W alloys by
applying Harmonic Structure Design – bimodal grain size distribution with an interconnected
framework of ultra-fine-grained (UFG) regions, called the “shell region”, surrounding isolated
coarse-grained (CG) regions. Harmonic structure Co-Cr specimens were successfully fabricated by
Powder Metallurgy (PM) that consisted of controlled mechanical milling and spark plasma
sintering. The sintered compacts revealed an outstanding combination of strength and total
elongation. Moreover, the sintering dwell time significantly improved densification and led to large
total elongation. PM improved the mechanical properties of Co-Cr-W alloys and offered an
attractive approach to fabricate harmonic structures for commercial applications.

Introduction
Co-Cr alloys are useful in medical applications due to their excellent biocompatibility, corrosion
and wear resistance, and appropriate mechanical properties [1-2]. Efforts continue to improve their
mechanical performance. In some investigations [3-4], better mechanical performance has reduced
costs by reducing not only the frequency of replacing parts, but also the usage of alloy through
high-strength, small-sized parts with improved mechanical properties.
A material’s mechanical properties depend on its microstructure [3]. Interestingly, Ameyama et
al. [4-6] proposed a new microstructure design concept called “Harmonic Structure” that allows for
a combination of high strength and large total elongation. The novel concept of harmonic structure
consists of a continuous three-dimensional network of high-strength, ultra-fine-grained (UFG)
regions surrounding coarse-grained (CG), isolated regions, as can be seen in Fig. 1. Furthermore,
harmonic structures can be fabricated by Powder Metallurgy (PM), consisting of controlled
Mechanical Milling (MM) followed by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). SPS provides an opportunity
to control densification of the compacts, resulting in excellent mechanical properties. This study
focused on: (i) fabricating a harmonic structure Co-Cr alloy; (ii) evaluating its mechanical
properties; and (iii) clarifying the effect of sintering dwell time on the microstructure and properties
of the harmonic structure compacts.

Core

Shell

Figure 1: Schematic of harmonic structure material.

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 Materials Science Forum Vol. 890 349

Experimental procedures
This study used a Co-Cr powder with the chemical composition as indicated in Table 1. The starting
powder was milled for 72ks under an Ar atmosphere at room temperature using a planetary ball mill
at a speed of 200 rpm with SKD11 vial and Cr balls, with a ball-to-powder weight ratio of 2:1.
Subsequently, the milled powders were consolidated by SPS in a vacuum atmosphere at 1323K
under applied pressure of 50MPa. The powder particle was sintered for 0.9ks, 1.8ks and 3.6ks. The
sintered compacts were disc-shaped in appearance, approximately 15mm in diameter and 4mm
thick. The microstructures of the specimens were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy
(SEM). The relative density of the sintered compacts were calculated by image analysis. The
mechanical properties of the sintered compacts were evaluated based on tensile tests with an initial
strain rate of 5.69 10-4 s-1 at room temperature. The gauge size of the tensile specimens was 3mm
long, 1mm wide and 1mm thick.
Table 1: Chemical composition of the Co-Cr-W powder (mass%)
Co Cr W C Fe Ni Si
Balance 29.1 13.0 2.4 1.5 1.3 1.1

Results
Microstructure of milled powders. Figure 2 shows the appearance of the as-received initial powder
(IP) (Fig. 2a) and the powder particles after milling for 72ks (Fig. 2b). The IP particles were almost
spherical in shape. Although the milled powder particles are of a similar size and shape, their
surface morphology is rougher, due to the impact of balls during mechanical milling; this indicates
that careful control of mechanical milling parameters allows the formation of a severely deformed
layer, consisting of nano/micro-sized crystallites near the surface of the powders. This type of
morphological transformation has also been found in some other materials [7-8]. Therefore, the
milled powder particles had a hybrid microstructure, with gently deformed inner, or core, regions
surrounded by heavily deformed shell, or surface, regions.

(a) (b)

10µm 10µm

Figure 2: SEM micrographs of powders

(a) as-received and (b) after MM72ks.
Microstructure of sintered compacts. Figure 3 shows the typical morphology of cross-sections
of the sintered compacts prepared from initial and milled powders sintered for 3.6ks. The IP-
sintered compacts were significantly porous (Fig. 3(a)). In contrast, the milled-powder sintered
compacts had a better relative density (Fig 3(b)). Furthermore, from Fig. 4, the average density of
the sintered compacts increased with increasing dwell time of sintering. Sintering for 3.6ks
produced a nearly full density compact. The longer sintering dwell time improved atomic diffusion
mechanisms, resulting in higher densification.
In addition, the milled-powder sintered compacts had superior relative density compared to IP-
sintered compacts at similar sintering conditions (Fig. 4). The higher density of the milled-powder
sintered compacts is evidence of superplastic deformation of the powder particles due to the
presence of UFG shell regions in the microstructure that resulted from the controlled mechanical
milling. This superplastic mechanism allowed the UFG microstructure to more easily deform than
the CG microstructure, leading to the high densification of the milled-powder sintered compacts [6].
350 Material Science and Engineering Technology V

(a (b)
)

Porosity

100µ 100µm
m
Figure 3: SEM micrographs of cross-sections of
(a) initial powder compact and (b) MM72ks compact

100%
Relative density, (%)

95%

90%

85% IP sintered compact

Milled powder sintered compact

80%
0.9ks 1.8ks 3.6ks
Dwell time of sintering, (ks)
Figure 4: The relationship of relative density
as a function of sintering dwell time for Co-Cr compacts
Figure 5 shows a backscattered electron micrograph of a cross-section of the sintered compacts
prepared from milled powders sintered for 1.8ks. The milled sintered compacts consist of two
different areas: (i) a continuous three-dimensional, high-strength network that forms shell area,
indicated by darker contrast and (ii) islands of soft cores, indicated by brighter contrast. Such a
microstructure is referred to as “Harmonic Structure”. The core and shell regions in harmonic
structure refer to the center and surface of the milled powders, respectively. Due to these
microstructural features, materials with a harmonic structure have superior mechanical properties
compared to conventional materials. This relationship has also been shown in other materials [4-8].

Shell

Core

25µm
Figure 5: Backscattered electron micrograph
of a cross-section of the prepared milled-powder sintered compacts

Mechanical properties of sintered compacts. Figure 6 shows representative nominal stress-

strain curves of sintered compacts. The harmonic structure compacts exhibited higher yields and
ultimate tensile strengths than the IP-sintered compact. In particular, the harmonic structure
compact sintered for 3.6ks exhibited an extremely larger total elongation of approximately 30%.
The formation of a harmonic structure clearly improved the mechanical properties of the Co-Cr
alloy.
Moreover, while the harmonic structure compacts were similar in strength, they exhibited
significantly different total elongation. In other words, a longer sintering dwell time did not affect
 Materials Science Forum Vol. 890 351

compact strength, but did improve the degree of chemical bonding at the particle interfaces.
Accordingly, the tensile performance of the harmonic structure compacts was maximized by
sintering at 1323K for 3.6ks.

1200

Nominal Stress, σ/MPa

C D
1000 B
A
800
600 A: Initial structure (sintered for 3.6ks)
400 B: Harmonic structure (sintered for 0.9ks)
C: Harmonic structure (sintered for 1.8ks)
200 D: Harmonic structure (sintered for 3.6ks)
0
0 10 20 30 40
Nominal Strain, ε/%

Figure 6: Representative nominal stress-strain curves of sintered compacts

Conclusions

This research successfully fabricated harmonic structure Co-Cr compacts by powder metallurgy
involving controlled mechanical milling followed by consolidation using spark plasma sintering.
The microstructure and mechanical properties of the sintered Co-Cr compacts were investigated.
The major results can be summarized as:
1) The controlled mechanical milling heavily deformed the surface, or shell, regions and gently
deformed the central, or core, regions of the powder particles.
2) The spark plasma sintering produced near full density compacts consisting of a three-
dimensional network of shell regions enclosing core regions.
3) The formation of the ultra-fine-grained shell region played an important role in preparing
near full density compacts.
4) The harmonic structure Co-Cr compacts demonstrated a superior combination of high
strength and large total elongation compared to IP-sintered compacts.
5) The sintering dwell time played an important role in the densification of the sintered
compacts, and extended total elongation.

Acknowledgements
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Professor Dr. Kei Ameyama and Dr. Sanjay
Kumar Vajpai for their helpful advice in developing the experimental procedures.

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