PREPARATION AND SINTERING OF W-20 % WT CU COMPOSITE POWDERS PRODUCED BY CO-PRECIPITATION METHOD

W-cu composites are widely used as contacts, heat sinks and electro discharge electrodes. these kinds of materials can befabricated by sintering of w-cu composite powders. in this research w-20%wt cu composi te powders was synthesized via a co-precipitation method. precipitate obtained from a mixture of copper nitrate and ammonium paratungstate (apt) in distilled water contained w-cu compounds. this precipitate was washed, dried and calcined at 550 °c in air and then reduced in h2 atmosphere in order to convert to w-cu powders. the calcination temperature of dried precipitate powder was determined by thermogravimetry (tg), differential thermal analysis (dta) and x-ray diffraction (xrd). the sintering of the reduced powders was investigated as afun ction of temperature. relative density of more than 98% obtained for the powders sintered at 1200°c . the corresponding electrical conductivity was too close to theoretical calculations. the hardness of the sintered powders was 320 vickers.