Effect of cryogenic treatment on WC–Co cemented carbides

The effect of cryogenic treatment on the mechanical and magnetic properties of WC–8 wt.% Co cemented carbides has been investigated in this paper. The results show that after the cryogenic treatment, the samples are characteristics of the enhanced hardness, compression strength, wear resistance and fatigue resistance, while the bending strength and toughness are not changed evidently. The magnetic properties indicate that the saturation intensity decreases with the coercive force increasing. The change of the mechanical properties is highly dependent on the soaking time, which could be ascribed to the change of residual stresses and martensitic phase transformation from α-Co (FCC) to ɛ-Co (HCP) during the cryogenic treatment.