The wear of ultrafine WC-Co hard metals

The wear performance of ultrafine-grained tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) h ard metals during three-body abrasion and particle erosion has been evaluat ed and compared to that of similar conventional coarser grained hard metals . The tungsten carbide grain size varied between 0.5 and 3 mum with cobalt contents ranging from 6 to 15%. Silica particles were used in both forms of testing. Erosion was carried out at 60 ms(-1) at an impact angle of 75 deg rees and abrasion at a velocity of 0.5 ms(-1) and a load of 50 N. The wear resistance of the ultrafine grades was found to be at least double that of the closest conventional fine grained hard metals. These increases in wear performance are considerably higher than any corresponding increas e in hardness which is, at most, 25% and is not achieved at the expense of fracture toughness which is maintained at a similar level to that of conven tional fine grained hard metals. The increase in wear resistance coincides with a change in the mechanism of material removal. Sub-micron materials ex perience ductile deformation and bulk removal of material whilst coarser gr ades display more localised response with extensive fragmentation of the WC grains. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.