Influences of Alloy Elements in Infiltrant on Mechanical Properties of Copper-alloy Infiltrated P/M High Speed Steels

Mechanical properties of copper-alloy infiltrated M42, T42 P/M high speed steels were studied. The green compacts were sintered in vacuum at 1433, 1443, 1453 K to make skeletons. The skeletons were infiltrated with Cu-Cr, Cu-Co and Cu-Fe-Mn alloy infiltrants in hydrogen or argon at 1423 K for 1.8 ks. The result obtained were summarized as follows. 1)A11 the infiltrated specimens shrinked. The Cu-Fe-Mn infiltrated M42, T42 P/M high speed steels had the least amount of dimentional change values during infiltration. The Cu-Fe-Mn infiltrated M42, T42 P/M steels had comparatively high hardness, but low strength. 2)Cu-Cr, Cu-Co infiltrated P/M high speed steels showed high strength, especially the P/M M42 steel having a skeleton sintered at 1453 k in vacuum and infiltrated with the Cu-Co alloy infiltrant in hydrogen had 2450 MPa of transverse rupture strength and HRC 48 of hardness as infiltrated.