Resumen
Cemented tungsten carbides (cWCs) are routinely used in mining and manufacturing but are also candidate materials for compact radiation shielding in fusion power generation. In both applications, there is a need for oxidation to be minimized at operating temperatures. In a recent study, Si-based coatings deposited by pack cementation were demonstrated to improve the oxidation resistance of cWCs by up to a factor of 1000. In this work, these coatings are further characterized, with the focus on growth kinetics, phase composition, and hardness. By combining quantitative X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and instrumented micro-indentation, it is shown that the coating layer has a 20% higher hardness than the substrate, which is explained by the presence of a previously-unknown distribution of very hard SiC laths. To interpret the coating stability, a coating growth map is developed. The map shows that the structure is stable under a broad range of processing temperatures and cWC compositions, demonstrating the wide-ranging applicability of these coatings.