Abstract: The warm compacting process of 90W-7Ni-3Fe alloys was discussed. The warm compacting behavior of hard powders with different lubricant contents, and the difference between room-temperature (RT) compaction and warm compaction was investigated. The results indicate that the relative density of greens via warm compaction is clearly higher than that of greens via RT compaction under the same compacting pressure. The highest green density is obtained in the sample via warm compaction with 0.6% lubricant, 0.26 g/cm3 higher than that of samples compacted at RT. When the lubricant addition is more than 0.6%, the green density decreases. The greens containing lubricant obviously have a decrease in ejecting force, and also the ejection force in warm compaction is lower than that in RT compaction. Both the tensile strength and elongation reach the highest values in the sample with 0.6% lubricant, which is in agreement with the change of sintered density as a function of lubricant content. Although little difference exists between the densities obtained by RT compaction and warm compaction, the warm compaction leads to higher tensile strength and elongation.

Key words: W-Ni-Fe alloy; lubricant; powder metallurgy; warm compaction; mechanics properties