Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Richard W Kidd

Paul N Dyer

Christopher Ceccarelli

Diwaker Garg

Beth A Klucher

Diwakar Garg

Paul Nigel Dyer

Extremely hard, fine grained tungsten/carbon alloys are described which are produced by thermochemical deposition. The alloys consist primarily of a mixture of a substantially pure tungsten phase and at least one carbide phase wherein the carbide phase consists of W.sub.2 C or W.sub.3 C or a mixture of W.sub.2 C and W.sub.3 C. The disclosed tungsten/carbon alloys are free of columnar grains and consist essentially of extremely fine, equiaxial crystals. Also disclosed is a method of producing the disclosed material.

High hardness fine grained tungsten-carbon alloys

A method for producing the disclosed material comprises introducing into a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor a mixture of process gases comprised essentially of (1) tungsten hexafluoride, (2) a volatile oxygen- and hydrogen-containing organic compound, and (3) hydrogen; controlling the ratio of the tungsten hexafluoride to the oxygen- and hydrogen-containing organic compound within the CVD reactor so that the W/C atomic ratio is within the range of about 0.5 to about 15; controlling the reaction temperature so it is within the range of above about 300.degree. to less than about 650.degree. C.; controlling the total pressure within the range of about 1 Torr. to about 1,000 Torr.; and controlling the ratio of H.sub.2 to WF.sub.6 within the range of about 4 to about 20; to produce W and W.sub.2 C, W and W.sub.3 C, or W and W.sub.2 C and W.sub.3 C.

Method for depositing a hard, fine-grained, non-columnar alloy of

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Newhall, CA, United States of America

Richard W Kidd