Study and development of a new material for electrical contacts based on Nb-15% pCu via high energy grinding and sintering by SPS
Powder metallurgy, High energy grinding, Sintering.
Several materials are currently used for the production of electrical contacts, heat sinks and coils with similar characteristics with those of the Nb and Cu alloy studied in this work. The objective of this work is the study and development of a new material for possible application in electrical contacts, using high energy grinding, with and without cryogenics, and sintering through SPS (Spark Plasma Sintering). For this, two powders of Nb and Cu, containing 15% by mass of Cu, were prepared and then milled by high energy grinding in a planetary type mill. The first powder was ground during the times of 1, 2 and 5 hours and the second was ground cryogenically for 26 hours. The powders appearance was obtained by MEV, EDS, XRD and IMAGE J. Subsequently the samples of the powders ground for 1.2 and 5 hours were sintered in the liquid phase via SPS at temperatures of 1100, 1400 and 1600 ° C. The powders ground for 26 hours were sintered via SPS at temperatures of 1000 ° C and 1100 ° C. The sintered bodies were observed and evaluated by CONFOCAL, SEM, EDS, XRD, EBSD, computed tomography, Vickers hardness, density and electrical conductivity. The bodies consolidated from the ground powders with the highest grinding time had higher values of density. Densified samples with up to 99.82% of the theoretical density were obtained for the sintered bodies of the crushed powders without cryogenics, and 97.8% for the sintered bodies of the crushed powders.