Effect of solution treatment temperature and cooling rate on the mechanical properties of tungsten heavy alloy

The present study investigates the effect of solution treatment temperature and cooling rate on mechanical properties of a tungsten heavy alloy (89.6W-6.2Ni-1.8Fe-2.4Co). In addition to water quenching, rapid argon quenching has been attempted in this study since it is a relatively cleaner process and it can be used in conjunction with vacuum treatment. Since in these alloys, there is a possibility of incomplete dissolution of intermetallics or segregation of impurities during heat treatment, which results in scatter in the mechanical properties, it was decided that the solution treatment temperature for both water and argon quenching would be varied from 1100 to 1250 degrees C in order to see its effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties. Solution treatment at varying temperatures followed by water quenching resulted in tensile strength ranging from 908 to 921 MPa and % elongation varied from 19% to 26%. On the other hand, the argon quenching heat treatment resulted in tensile strength in the range of 871-955 MPa and % elongation from 9% to 25%. No significant trend with respect to solution treatment temperature on tensile properties was seen in both argon and water quenched samples. % elongation to failure and impact values of water quenched specimens were better than those of argon quenched specimens for a given solution treatment temperature. The impact values appeared to improve with increasing solution treatment temperature in water quenched condition. The properties were correlated with underlying microstructure and fractographs of the failed specimens. The study showed the argon quenching may not be appropriate for the heat treatment of heavy alloys since it results in inferior mechanical properties as compared to water quenching.