Method for producing hard metal powder, and hard metal powder

A method for producing hard metal powder suitable for manufacturing hard metal products comprising metal carbides and a metallic binder, the method comprising:

• a) dissolving water soluble raw materials in water comprising a hard particle source, comprising a carbon source, and a metallic binder source to form an aqueous solution,
• b) drying in a drying process the aqueous solution to form a precursor powder having the water soluble raw materials homogenously distributed throughout the precursor powder,
• c) decomposing the precursor powder in a first heat treatment by heating it in a temperature of 370° C. to 430° C. in an inert atmosphere to remove gas evolved in the decomposition of the water soluble 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 in a second heat treatment at 900° C. to 1150° C. in an inert atmosphere to form a hard metal powder containing agglomerates of carbides evenly distributed and bonded to a metallic matrix, wherein (f) is carried out immediately after (e).