- Influence of abrasive characteristics on the wear micro-mechanisms of NbC and WC cermets during three-body abrasion
- Highlights
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Section snippets
- Materials
- Abrasive size effect
- Discussion
- Conclusions
- CRediT author statement
- Declaration of competing interest
- Acknowledgements
- The history of the technological progress of hardmetals
- Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- Dependence of microscale abrasion mechanisms of WC-Co hardmetals on abrasive type
- Microstructure and tribological performance of NbC-Ni cermets modified by VC and Mo2C
- Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- Potentials of niobium carbide (NbC) as cutting tools and for wear protection
- Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- Cemented Carbide Microstructures: a Review
- Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- Chapter 2 — industrial wear problems
- Development of the dry sand/rubber wheel abrasion test
- Transitions between two-body and three-body abrasive wear: influence of test conditions in the microscale abrasive wear test
- Two-body and three-body abrasive wear behaviour of polyaryletherketone composites
- Cited by (11)
Influence of abrasive characteristics on the wear micro-mechanisms of NbC and WC cermets during three-body abrasion
Highlights
-
Effect of abrasive particle characteristics on the wear of cermets explained.
-
Abrasive wear changes from rolling to sliding as a results of particle size effect.
-
Hardness ratio (Ha/Hs) on the wear transition of cermets has been elucidated.
-
Abrasive shape does not show any significant difference in wear rate of cermets.
-
NbC cermet provides good wear resistance during mild wear against silica abrasives.
Abstract
The present study has developed new insights into the wear transition mode of cermets and provides a better understanding of the role of abrasive characteristics in three-body abrasive wear. Two sintered and fully densified cermets, NbC–Ni (NbC–12Ni–10Mo2C) and WC-Co (WC-9.5Co) with similar micro-hardness (HV30 ≈ 13.5 GPa) were selected in this study. The abrasion response of cermets against different abrasive characteristics namely size (67–245 μm), hardness (silica, alumina and SiC), and shape (round and angular) was experimentally investigated according to the ASTM standard. The test results showed that the specific wear rate (SWR) of the cermets increased significantly with increasing abrasive size and hardness. The size effect shows that the dominant wear micro-mechanisms shift from binder removal (rolling) to mixed binder-carbide extrusion (sliding) as the abrasives particle size changes from smaller (67 μm) to larger (245 μm). The hardness ratio between the abrasives and cermets (Ha/Hs) highlights that silica and alumina abrasives provide mild wear (Ha/Hs < 1.5), while SiC abrasives cause severe wear (Ha/Hs > 1.5). Both cermets exhibited similar SWR during mild wear, but NbC–Ni showed 7 times higher SWR than WC-Co during severe wear. The abrasives shape effect does not show a significant difference on the wear rate of the cermets.
Introduction
Section snippets
Materials
Abrasive size effect
The size effect of abrasives on the specific wear rate (SWR) of both WC-Co and NbC–Ni cermets against SiC abrasive is shown in Fig. 6. Although both cermets exhibit similar micro-hardness, NbC–Ni showed significantly higher wear (4–7 times) than the WC-Co cermets. The material removal is directly proportional to the size of the abrasives, as the wear rate increased by an order of magnitude (about 16 times for WC-Co and 35 times for NbC–Ni) when the SiC particle size changed from 67 μm (F220) to
Discussion
The changes in the specific wear rate due to the abrasive characteristics such as size, hardness and shape on the cermet surface can be explained based on the material removal mechanisms. The abrasive size effect confirms that the wear rate of both cermets (WC–Co and NbC–Ni) increased significantly as the particle size increased. The mechanisms changed from depletion of the binder to extensive carbide cracking and fragmentation as the abrasive SiC particle size changed from F220 (67 μm) to F70
Conclusions
-
For both NbC–Ni and WC-Co cermets with similar hardness, the abrasive SiC particle size causes significant changes in the specific abrasion wear rate (≈21 and ≈ 36 times) when the particle size changes from 67 μm to 245 μm. The movement of the abrasive
CRediT author statement
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Scientific Research fund of Flanders (FWO — Vlaanderen, Belgium) in the context of the project. . The authors express their gratitude to the metal research group of OCAS NV, Ghent for providing the experimental facility and ir. Michiel Corryn for the valuable time and training. We thank the professor and colleagues at Ghent University, prof. dr. ir. Dieter Fauconnier, prof. dr. ir. Roumen Petrov (MST), dr. ir. Wouter Ost, ir.
-
The history of the technological progress of hardmetals
Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- et al.
Dependence of microscale abrasion mechanisms of WC-Co hardmetals on abrasive type
- et al.
Microstructure and tribological performance of NbC-Ni cermets modified by VC and Mo2C
Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- et al.
Potentials of niobium carbide (NbC) as cutting tools and for wear protection
Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- et al.
Cemented Carbide Microstructures: a Review
Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater.
- et al.
Chapter 2 — industrial wear problems
- et al.
Development of the dry sand/rubber wheel abrasion test
- et al.
Transitions between two-body and three-body abrasive wear: influence of test conditions in the microscale abrasive wear test
- et al.
Two-body and three-body abrasive wear behaviour of polyaryletherketone composites
Cited by (11)
View full text
