Stabilization of microhardness of hard alloy VK6 cutting plates modified by fast electrons by cryoprocessing

Abstract

The study is devoted to the effect cryoprocessing has on the stabilization of VK6 (hard alloy) after irradiation with fast electrons with energy of 5 MeV. To investigate samples with a close microstructure characteristics, a measurement of a structure-sensitive property -- co-effective force -- was held. It was shown that the treatment of VK6 hard alloy with fast electron irradiation increases its microhardness by 30 % in comparison with the original samples without any irradiation. It was found out that the microhardness of VK6 hard alloy samples after treatment with fast electrons depends on the initial surface structure, so that polished samples have higher values of microhardness than samples which surface were ground. X-ray phase analysis made it possible to establish the difference between the structures of polished and ground surfaces of the VK6 hard alloy in a stressed state. It was also shown that the treatment with fast electrons irradiation with an energy of 5 MeV does not lead to the formation of new phases. To establish the consolidation of the effect of increasing the hardness of the irradiated materials, annealing of VK6 hard alloy samples at the temperature of 30–100 °C (on air) was held. Cryoprocessing allowed us to consolidate the effect of increasing microhardness of the surface (surface microhardness) and wear resistance after irradiation of the VK6 hard alloy. Ill. 5. Ref. 10.