Low and high temperature hardness of WC-6 wt%Co alloys

This paper reports hardness measurements on WC-6 wt%Co of three different grain sizes in the temperature range from -196 to 900°C. Coarser grades have been found to soften with increasing temperature at a higher rate than finer grades. It has been confirmed that hardness decreases with increasing grain size over the whole range of temperatures and it has been shown that the decrease in hardness with increasing grain size follows a Hall-Fetch-type relationship at all the temperatures tested. © 1997 Elsevier Science Limited.