Properties of TiC-reinforced Cu-W alloys prepared by wire arc additive manufacturing

In this paper, Cu-W alloys with different TiC additions were prepared by wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) technology with Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) melting copper-based flux cored wire. In the additive manufacturing process, W and TiC with high melting point directly transited to the molten pool as solid phase. When the addition of TiC was small, most of TiC was gathered around the W particles in Cu-W alloys, which was conducive to enhancing interface bonding strength. With the increased of TiC content, the electrical conductivity of Cu-W alloys was decreased, microhardness and high temperature wear resistance were increased. When the addition of TiC was more than 3 wt%, the agglomeration of TiC degrades the performance of Cu-W alloys. Cu-W alloys with 3 wt% TiC addition show the best performance, includes high microhardness and high wear resistance with low loss of electrical conductivity.