High temperature transformations in a steel-TiCN cermet

The influence of the carbon content on the microstructure, phase transformation and hardness of an iron-based cermet is studied. The cermet is constituted by a high-alloyed steel as matrix, and TiCN particles (50 vol.%) as reinforcement. The material is produced by conventional powder metallurgy techniques, that is, uniaxial pressing and sintering, and the carbon content is varied from 0 wt.% to 1 wt.% The aim of the research is the understanding of the transformations undergone by the material with increasing C amounts when temperature is increased. For this purpose, the cermet is studied by mechanical spectroscopy (MS) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and hardness measurements. The equilibrium phase diagram calculated by ThermoCalc software contributes to explain the differences found on phase transformations with respect to the C content of the cermet. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.