Sliding wear behavior of WC–Co–Cr3C2–VC composites fabricated by conventional and non-conventional techniques

The present work aims are to study the dry sliding wear behavior of WC-12 wt%Co materials, with or without addition of Cr3C2/VC grain growth inhibitors, and to sinter them by two different consolidation techniques: conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The dry sliding wear tests were performed on a tribometer with a ball-on-disc configuration using a WC–Co ball as a counterpart material with a normal contact load of 60 N, a sliding distance of 10,000 m and a sliding speed of 0.1 m/s. The influence of the grain growth inhibitors and the consolidation techniques in sintered samples were related to the friction coefficient, wear rates and wear pattern damage. Samples sintered by non-conventional technique (SPS) show the best wear resistance and lower friction coefficient. The addition of inhibitors reduces the wear rates in materials consolidated by both techniques. The differences in the wear damage are related to microstructural parameters, mechanical properties and wear rates.