Rheology of hard metal pastes

The reduced grain size in hard metal pastes poses considerable challenges in experimental modelling and processing. To address these, thermal properties, rheological behaviour, and other key influencing factors of a nano-grained pastes were studied by applying and adapting several state-of-the-art characterization techniques. These investigations led to the development of a novel method for determining the maximum packing fraction of powder systems and to the introduction of the concept of zero-pressure density. This new approach demonstrated broad applicability across various tungsten carbide grain sizes. The research findings contributed to the understanding and optimization of hard metal paste processing in industrial applications.