Sliding wear of conventional and nanostructured cemented carbides

The sliding wear mechanisms of cemented carbide and the effects of the microstructure scale on the wear resistance were investigated by performing a series of unlubricated sliding wear tests in air with pins of WC-Co composites sliding against silicon nitride disks. In the first approximation, the wear rate is proportional to the hardness with a wear coefficient k = 6.9 x 10(-6) for all materials. In the conventional cermets, the wear coefficient k also depends on the grain size; materials with smaller WC grains exhibit a smaller wear resistance. This reduction, however, does not extend to the nanostructured materials which exhibit the above value for k: their wear resistance is higher than that of conventional cermets in proportion to their hardness. The data can also be expressed in terms of cobalt content: the lower the cobalt content, the lower the wear; but two different such dependencies exist, one for the conventional and one for the nanostructured materials with lower wear. The sliding wear of WC-Co composites occurs on a very small scale: the worn surfaces show no evidence of fracture or plastic deformation. This wear behavior is explained by the hexagonal structure and the anisotropic mechanical behavior of the WC grains that are capable of shear in a limited number of planes but are not capable of triaxial deformation. The higher wear resistance of the nanostructured composites is related to their hardness which decreases the real area of contact. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.