Abstract: A cemented carbide body is 1-30% by mass of binder consisting of Co, Co/Ni, Co/Fe, Co/Ni/Fe or Ni/Fe and a hard material having a hexagonal WC phase and having a face-centered cubic phase of the form (M1, M2, M3)C or (M1, M2, M3)(C, N) or (M1, M2, M3)(O, C, N) where M1=Ti and/or Zr and M2=W and M3 optionally means none or one or a plurality of the elements Ta, Nb, Hf, Cr, Mo or V, wherein the proportion of the face-centered cubic phase based on the total mass is 2% to 97%, preferably 5 to 12% by mass, and the microstructure of the hexagonal phase and of the face-centered cubic phase has a mean grain size of between 0.2 ?m and 1 ?m, preferably ?0.9 ?m, and the mean grain sizes of the hexagonal phase and of the face-centered cubic phase differ at most by 30%.

Abstract: A hard metal or cermet body has a 2 to 100 ?m thick first layer having a binder metal proportion of 2 to 25 mass % and up to 25 volume % of a nitride or carbonitride of one or more metals of Group IVa of the periodic system or up to 10 volume % of a carbide or carbonitride of V, Nb, Ta or Cr, balance WC, whereby the amount of nitride, carbonitride or carbide of the afore-mentioned metals amounts to at least 0.01 volume %. Under the first layer is a 2 to 40 ?m thick second layer with an enhanced nitrogen proportion relative to the first layer, is disposed. Thereunder is a transition zone with a thickness of 2 to 100 ?m in which the composition gradually changes to a homogeneous composition in the inner core of the hard metal or cermet body.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hard metal or cermet body comprising a single or several adjoining surfaces. A first layer with a thickness of between 2-100 ?m is located beneath the single surface or at least one of the surfaces, said layer comprising an auxiliary metal fraction of between 2 and 25 mass % and up to 25 volume % nitrides or carbonitrides of one or more metals of the IVa group of the periodic table and/or up to 10 volume % carbides and/or carbonitrides of the elements V, Nb, Ta and/or Cr, with WC making up the residual amount.

Abstract: The invention relates to a sintered part consisting of a hard metal, in particular WC with Co, Ni and/or Fe binders-based hard metal, or cermet, in particular on the base of composition consisting of (Ti, W) (C, N) or (Ti, Mo) (C, N) with Co, Ni and/or Fe binders and to a method for producing such a sintered part. The inventive method consists in exposing a sintered part totally or partially to an active plasma gaseous phase at a maximum pressure of 3×104 Pa during heating, sintering or after sintering, at least during a certain time preferably during a time period ranging from 10 to 100 min.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hard metal substrate body consisting of a WC hard material phase and between 3 and 25 mass % of a binding phase containing at least one binding metal Fe, Co and/or Ni, and up to 15 mass % (in relation to the binding phase) of dissolved dopants from the group containing Al, Cr, Mo, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta. The invention also relates to a method for producing one such hard metal substrate body, using powder metallurgy followed by sintering. According to the invention, the percentage of all of the dopants in the hard metal is limited to a maximum of 4 mass %, the proportion of cubic phase in the hard metal is less than 4 vol. %, and the binding metal content in an edge region of the hard metal substrate body falls from up to 1 ?m, preferably up to 0.5 ?m, to less than half the binding agent content inside the substrate body.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hard metal or cermet cutting material for cutting chromium-alloy steel parts. Said cutting material comprises a hard phase containing carbides, nitrides and/or carbonitrides and a binder phase based on iron, cobalt and nickel. The aim of the invention is to prevent an agglomeration of the cutting material during cutting operations. For this purpose, the binder phase contains 10% by weight to 75% by weight of Co, 10% by weight to 75% by weight of Ni, 5% by weight to 30% by weight of Cr, ?20% by weight to 60% by weight of Fe, the total of Co, Ni, Cr and Fe not exceeding 100% by weight.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hard metal or cermet body with a hard material phase consisting of WC and/or at least one carbide, nitride, carbonitride and/or oxicarbonitride of at least one of the elements from group IVa, Va, or VIa of the periodic table and a binding metal phase consisting of Fe, Co and/or Ni, said binding metal phase making up 3 to 25 mass %. In particular, WC crystallites should protrude beyond the hard metal or cermet surface of the by 2 to 20 &mgr;m in order to improve the adhesion of surface layers that are applied.

Abstract: A hard metal or cermet body, especially as a cutting insert, has a WC content in the hard phase making up at least 10% and at most 96% thereof and three layers or zones between the interior of the body and the surface formed by the heat treatment to which the sinterable body is subjected. In the outermost layer hard material with limited binder content can be formed underlain by an intermediate layer of a substantially pure WC--Co composition, the innermost layer having a tungsten content falling to the value in the body interior and a binder phase and Group IVa and Group Va metal which increased progressively to the levels in the body interior.