[en] The use of inhibitors to prevent grain growth during sintering of tungsten carbide-cobalt materials become widespread with the apparition of ultrafine to nanostructured powders. A uniform distribution of the inhibitor is required in order to obtain an optimal inhibition effect. To provide a good homogeneity of the powder, long grinding is required. To bypass this long grinding a 'ready to use' doped binder was produced by mechanical alloying of cobalt with 10 wt.% Cr3C2 as grain growth inhibitor. In the next step, this binder was mixed with a nanostructured WC powder. As a comparison point, a batch of similar tungsten carbide/cobalt mix was mixed with the inhibitor, using the same proportions and mixing conditions. Both series were sintered by SPS technique. The samples were analyzed by optical and electronic microscopy and mechanical properties were investigated. The first series (with 'ready to use' binder) presented better homogeneity.
