Feasibility Study Of Using Tungsten Carbide Thermal Spray Powders For Binder Jetting Technology

Additive manufacturing of hard metals is gaining attention due to the possibility of fabricating complex shaped parts and new functional designs. Among all of them, Binder Jetting (BJ) appears to be one of the most promising technology due to its low-cost, fast manufacturing process that produces stress and crack-free parts with isotropic properties. In the present work, the feasibility of using hard metal thermal spray powders (WC-12%Co) for binder jetting technology has been studied. Properties of two different agglomerated and sintered powders (AMPERIT 519.059 from Höganäs and WOKA 3111FC from Oerlikon Metco) have been analysed and compared. In addition, physical, mechanical and microstructural properties (density, hardness) of the printed parts sintered in a sinter-hip-furnace at 1455°C and 30bars have been evaluated and compared. The obtained results demonstrated the feasibility of using this type of powders for binder jetting, obtaining near full density parts (>99%) with hardness values around 1320 HV and homogeneous fine-medium microstructure.