A method for producing hard metal powder suitable for manufacturing hard metal products including metal carbides and a binder is provided. An easy to carry out method that provides high quality hard metal powder includes: a) dissolving in water, water soluble raw materials and a binder source to form an aqueous solution, b) drying the aqueous solution to form a precursor powder having the raw materials homogenously distributed throughout the precursor powder, c) decomposing the precursor powder by heating the powder in an inert atmosphere to remove gas evolved in the decomposition of the raw materials, d) grinding the precursor powder and mixing it with a liquid media to produce a suspension, e) spray drying the suspension to agglomerate the precursor powder, and f) heat treating the agglomerated precursor powder to form a hard metal powder containing agglomerates of carbides evenly distributed and bonded to a metallic matrix.

In one aspect, additive manufacture techniques are described herein which enable the densification of green articles prior to further article processing. In some embodiments, a method of forming an article comprises providing a powder composition, and forming the powder composition into a green article by one or more additive manufacturing techniques. The green article is contacted with a powder pressure transfer media. The green article and powder pressure transfer media are then subjected to cold isostatic pressing (CIP) or warm isostatic pressing (WIP) at a pressure less than minimum isostatic compaction pressure of the powder pressure transfer media to provide a densified green article.

In one aspect, additive manufacture techniques are described herein which enable the densification of green articles prior to further article processing. In some embodiments, a method of forming an article comprises providing a powder composition, and forming the powder composition into a green article by one or more additive manufacturing techniques. The green article is contacted with a powder pressure transfer media. The green article and powder pressure transfer media are then subjected to cold isostatic pressing (CIP) or warm isostatic pressing (WIP) at a pressure less than minimum isostatic compaction pressure of the powder pressure transfer media to provide a densified green article.

A polycrystalline super hard construction comprises a body of polycrystalline super hard material and a substrate bonded to the body along an interface. The substrate a first end surface forming the interface, the first end surface comprising a projection extending from the body of the substrate into the body of super hard material towards the cutting face, the body of polycrystalline material extending around the projection. The body of polycrystalline material comprises a first region more thermally stable than a second region, the first region comprising an annular portion located around the projection, the second region extending between and bonding the first region to the substrate. The first region has a thickness from the cutting face along the peripheral side edge to the interface of at least around 3 mm and a portion of the projection has a thickness measured in a plane extending along the longitudinal axis of at least around 3 mm.

A method of treating a sintered mining insert including cemented carbide includes the step of subjecting the mining insert to a surface hardening process. The surface hardening process is executed at an elevated temperature of or above 100° C. A mining insert is also provided, wherein the HV1 Vickers hardness measurement increase (HV1%) from the surface region, measured as an average of HV1 measurements taken at 100 μm, 200 μm and 300 μm below the surface, compared to the HV1 Vickers hardness measured in the bulk (HV1bulk), is at least 8.05-0.00350×HV1bulk.

A cutting tool includes a substrate of cemented carbide including hard constituents in a metallic binder. The hard constituents includes WC and the WC content in the cemented carbide is 80-96 wt%. The cemented carbide has a Ni content of 2.5-13 wt%, a weight ratio of Fe / Ni < 1.5 and a weight ratio of Co / Ni < 0.825. The cutting tool includes a rake face, a flank face and a cutting edge there between, wherein the hardness H is measured with Vickers indentation and the crack resistance W is the ratio of the load to the total crack lengths of the cracks in the corners of said Vickers indentation. The product of the hardness at the rake face H(rake) and the crack resistance at the rake face W(rake) for the cutting tool is H(rake)*W(rake) > 2000 HV100*N/.Math.m.

A cutting tool includes a substrate of cemented carbide including hard constituents in a metallic binder. The hard constituents includes WC and the WC content in the cemented carbide is 80-96 wt%. The cemented carbide has a Ni content of 2.5-13 wt%, a weight ratio of Fe / Ni < 1.5 and a weight ratio of Co / Ni < 0.825. The cutting tool includes a rake face, a flank face and a cutting edge there between, wherein the hardness H is measured with Vickers indentation and the crack resistance W is the ratio of the load to the total crack lengths of the cracks in the corners of said Vickers indentation. The product of the hardness at the rake face H(rake) and the crack resistance at the rake face W(rake) for the cutting tool is H(rake)*W(rake) > 2000 HV100*N/.Math.m.

A cemented carbide comprising 55-90 parts by mass of WC particles and 10-45 parts by mass of a Fe-based binder phase; the binder phase having a composition comprising 0.5-10% by mass of Ni, 0.2-2% by mass of C, 0.5-5% by mass of Cr, 0.2-2.0% by mass of Si, and 0.1-5% by mass of W, the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities, and containing 0.05-2.0% by area of Fe—Si—O-based particles.

A cemented carbide comprising 55-90 parts by mass of WC particles and 10-45 parts by mass of a Fe-based binder phase; the binder phase having a composition comprising 0.5-10% by mass of Ni, 0.2-2% by mass of C, 0.5-5% by mass of Cr, 0.2-2.0% by mass of Si, and 0.1-5% by mass of W, the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities, and containing 0.05-2.0% by area of Fe—Si—O-based particles.

A cutting element comprises a supporting substrate, and a cutting table attached to an end of the supporting substrate. The cutting table comprises inter-bonded diamond particles, and a thermally stable material within interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded diamond particles. The thermally stable material comprises a carbide precipitate having the general chemical formula, A.sub.3XZ.sub.n-1, where A comprises one or more of Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Ac, Th, Pa, and U; X comprises one or more of Al, Ga, Sn, Be, Bi, Te, Sb, Se, As, Ge, Si, B, and P; Z comprises C; and n is greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 0.75. A method of forming a cutting element, an earth-boring tool, a supporting substrate, and a method of forming a supporting substrate are also described.