Partially stabilised zirconia (Y-TZP) has excellent mechanical properties but only moderate hardness. By dispersion strengthening with hard materials, such as tungsten carbide, an increase in hardness and an improvement in wear resistance can be achieved. So far, only TZP/WC composites with WC contents < 20 vol.% have been successfully compacted in a pressureless sintering process. The compaction of TZP/WC composites with WC contents up to 40 vol.% was realised via hot pressing or Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) [1, 2]. The aim of this project work is to develop TZP/WC composites with high WC contents that can also be compacted in a pressureless sintering process. For this purpose, the influence of different WC contents and particle size ratios on the microstructure formation and sintering activity was investigated. In a sintering study, the compaction behaviour was characterised in vacuum, argon and nitrogen. In the pressureless sintering process, TZP composites with 40 % WC by volume could be sintered to 99 %TD density. Finally, a mechanical characterisation of the TZP/WC composite was performed by 4-point flexural strength, Vickers hardness, fracture toughness and Young's modulus.

[1] Ünal, N.; Kern, F.; Öveçoğlu, M.; Gadow, R.: Optimization of processing conditions and characterization investigations of ceramic injection molded and sintered ZrO2/WC composites. In: Journal of Alloys and Compounds 509 (2011) 14, S. 4797–804.

[2] Pedzich, Z.: Tungsten Carbide as an Reinforcement in Structural Oxide-Matrix Composites. In: Liu, K. (Hrsg.): Tungsten Carbide - Processing and Applications 2012.