Effect of sintering techniques on the structure and dry sliding wear behavior of WC-FeAl composite

Abstract

WC-Co hardmetals tools have been widely used as wear-resistance components in machining processes. WC-FeAl composites are candidate replacements of WC-Co in the machining industry owing to their unique mechanical and chemical properties, particularly at elevated temperatures. In this paper, spark plasma sintering (SPS), and conventional process sintering were applied to produce bulk WC-FeAl composite. The microstructure and the dry sliding wear behavior of WC-FeAl composites were evaluated, and the mechanisms of the sliding wear were discussed in detail. The results showed that a fully dense sample was obtained by spark plasma sintering with insignificant growth in the grain size. The SPS sample has a lower friction coefficient and wear loss than the samples consolidated by conventional sintering under the same conditions. With enhancing test temperature, the samples showed an increase in the wear rate. By considering the worn surfaces, only SPS sample possessed excellent oxidation resistance during the wear test carried out at 500°C. The higher amounts of porosity were the main reason that led to reduced hardness and wear resistance in the conventional sintered samples. The difference in the hardness, density, mean grain size, and wear resistance which detected in the samples demonstrated high correlations between mechanical properties and the sintering process of this composite.