Application of Micro Wear Testing in Investigations of Super Coarse WC-Co Type Sintered Carbides

Abstract:

The mico-wear abrasion test has recently become a popular method for the measurements of wear resistance of both coated and solid materials. It provides insight into abrasion micromechanisms and quantitative information (wear coefficient) of the tested samples. The investigated super coarse WC-Co composite (WC particles average size of 6-10 μm) reveals the biggest fracture resistance within the whole size range of sintered carbides, at the certain expense of hardness. Super coarse grades are used, among other, as coal mining tools and rock cutting/driling bits. In this work, ball-cratering wear tests were performed using 1 μm diamond particles as the abrasion medium; the abrasives used produced well-defined craters. The worn areas were observed and measured using optical and electronic microscopy, the wear coefficient was calculated based on the increasing sliding distance method. It was found that super coarse sinters abraded with 1 μm diamond grains were more wear resistant than the more fine grained counterparts. This result is attributed to the influence of the large size ratio of WC particles and diamond grains and consequent stronger WC embeding in the metal matrix.

• Periodical: Solid State Phenomena (Volume 246)
• Pages: 3-6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.246.3
• Online since: February 2016
• Authors: Katarzyna Harabas, Janusz Richter*
• Keywords: Alternative Binders, Mechanical Properties, Sintered Carbides, Super Coarse Grains

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