A cemented carbide suitable as a high performance hard metal material for wire drawing of high-tensile strength alloys is provided. The cemented carbide may include a relatively low binder content with additives Cr, Ta and/or Nb to provide high wear and corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, high hardness and a desired hardness to fracture toughness correlation.

A cemented carbide suitable as a high performance hard metal material for wire drawing of high-tensile strength alloys is provided. The cemented carbide may include a relatively low binder content with additives Cr, Ta and/or Nb to provide high wear and corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, high hardness and a desired hardness to fracture toughness correlation.

To provide a powder material for additive layer manufacturing capable of molding a three-dimensional shaped molded article having less cracking or chipping and having high hardness and a method for manufacturing a molded article using the powder material. A powder material for additive layer manufacturing used to manufacture a three-dimensional shaped molded article by irradiation with a laser light or an electron beam contains cobalt, a first component containing one or more substances selected from the group consisting of vanadium carbide, niobium carbide, and molybdenum carbide, an optional additive component, and the balance of tungsten carbide. The content of the first component is 0.6% by mass or more and 5% by mass or less.

A sintered cemented carbide body including tungsten carbide, and a substantially cobalt-free binder including an iron-based alloy sintered with the tungsten carbide. The iron-based alloy is approximately 2-25% of the overall weight percentage of the sintered tungsten carbide and iron-based alloy. The tungsten carbide may be approximately 90 wt % and the iron-based alloy may be approximately 10 wt % of the overall weight percentage of the sintered tungsten carbide and iron-based alloy. The tungsten carbide may comprise a substantially same size before and after undergoing sintering. The iron-based alloy may be sintered with the tungsten carbide using a uniaxial hot pressing process, a spark plasma sintering process, or a pressureless sintering process. The sintered tungsten carbide and iron-based alloy has a hardness value of at least 15 GPa and a fracture toughness value of at least 11 MPa√m.

A sintered cemented carbide body including tungsten carbide, and a substantially cobalt-free binder including an iron-based alloy sintered with the tungsten carbide. The iron-based alloy is approximately 2-25% of the overall weight percentage of the sintered tungsten carbide and iron-based alloy. The tungsten carbide may be approximately 90 wt % and the iron-based alloy may be approximately 10 wt % of the overall weight percentage of the sintered tungsten carbide and iron-based alloy. The tungsten carbide may comprise a substantially same size before and after undergoing sintering. The iron-based alloy may be sintered with the tungsten carbide using a uniaxial hot pressing process, a spark plasma sintering process, or a pressureless sintering process. The sintered tungsten carbide and iron-based alloy has a hardness value of at least 15 GPa and a fracture toughness value of at least 11 MPa√m.

A component suitable for a timepiece or a jewellery item may be made of a cermet material including a carbide phase and a metal binder phase selected from among gold, platinum, palladium rhodium, osmium, ruthenium, and one of the alloys thereof. The metal binder phase may be present in a range of from 3 and 25 wt. % and the carbide phase may be present in a range of from 75 and 97 wt. %.

A component suitable for a timepiece or a jewellery item may be made of a cermet material including a carbide phase and a metal binder phase selected from among gold, platinum, palladium rhodium, osmium, ruthenium, and one of the alloys thereof. The metal binder phase may be present in a range of from 3 and 25 wt. % and the carbide phase may be present in a range of from 75 and 97 wt. %.

A cemented carbide includes a first hard phase and a binder phase. The first hard phase is composed of tungsten carbide grains. The binder phase includes cobalt and nickel as constituent elements. An arbitrary surface or arbitrary cross section of the cemented carbide has: a region R1 interposed between an interface between the tungsten carbide grains and the binder phase and an imaginary line A; a region R2 interposed between the imaginary line A and an imaginary line B; and a region R3 other than the region R1 and R2. When a line analysis is performed in a range including the region R1 and the region R3 adjacent to the region R1 with the region R2, a ratio C.sub.5/C.sub.20 of a maximum atomic concentration C.sub.5 at % of cobalt in the region R1 and a maximum atomic concentration C.sub.20 at % of cobalt in the region R3 is more than 1.

A cemented carbide includes a first hard phase and a binder phase. The first hard phase is composed of tungsten carbide grains. The binder phase includes cobalt and nickel as constituent elements. An arbitrary surface or arbitrary cross section of the cemented carbide has: a region R1 interposed between an interface between the tungsten carbide grains and the binder phase and an imaginary line A; a region R2 interposed between the imaginary line A and an imaginary line B; and a region R3 other than the region R1 and R2. When a line analysis is performed in a range including the region R1 and the region R3 adjacent to the region R1 with the region R2, a ratio C.sub.5/C.sub.20 of a maximum atomic concentration C.sub.5 at % of cobalt in the region R1 and a maximum atomic concentration C.sub.20 at % of cobalt in the region R3 is more than 1.

A preparation method of cemented carbide with FeCoCu medium-entropy alloy as binding phase is provided. The preparation method includes: 1) preparing FeCoCu precursor powders by solution combustion synthesis; 2) preparing FeCoCu medium-entropy alloy powders by mechanical alloying; 3) evenly mixing the FeCoCu medium-entropy alloy powders with ultra-fine WC powders and a binder to obtain mixed powders and pressing the mixed powders into a shaped green body; 4) preparing a WC-FeCoCu cemented carbide by microwave sintering after removing the binder from the shaped green body. The preparation method reduces sintering temperature and time and obtains a new-type cemented carbide with fine grains, high hardness and good toughness while reducing the cost.