Printability and properties of tungsten cemented carbide produced using laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing with Ti as a binder

WC based Cemented carbides are widely used hard materials. Their conventional processing normally requires mold designing and manufacturing, which usually leads to a prolonged production cycle and high cost. Pure Ti, as a binder metal, has the advantages of low density, excellent corrosion resistance, and good mechanical property. The influences of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing parameters on the formability of cemented carbides (WC) using different amounts of Ti as the binder material, i.e. WC-xTi (x = 10, 15, and 20 wt%), were investigated in this study. The results showed that the WC-20Ti cemented carbide has the best LPBF formability and highest density, and that the optimal printing parameters for the alloy are a laser power of 175 W and a scanning speed of 600 mm·s−1. WC-20Ti carbide accessories and gears were further printed using the LPBF technique under optimal processing parameters to demonstrate the good printability. The results show that, at room temperature, the as-printed WC-20Ti cemented carbide has achieved hardness of 1476 ± 50 HV1, compressive strength of 1.75 GPa, and good corrosion resistance (rate of 0.1986 mm·a−1). These properties are mainly attributed to its high density and uniform microstructure, whose average grain size was ∼5.02 μm, and various hard phases (WC, W2C, and TiC) formed during printing.