Natasha Sacks

Effect of 10 wt% VC on the Friction and Sliding Wear of Spark Plasma–Sintered WC–12 wt% Co Cemented Carbides

ABSTRACT The effect of 10 wt% VC addition on the friction and sliding wear response of WC–12 wt% Co cemented carbides produced by spark plasma sintering (SPS) was studied. The SPS of WC–12 wt% Co alloys with and without 10 wt% VC, at 1100 and 1130°C, respectively, yielded dense materials with minimal porosity. No eta phase was found in any of the alloys. The WC–12 wt% Co–10 wt% VC alloy showed the formation of a hard WV4C5 phase, which improved the alloys hardness. Friction and dry sliding wear tests were done using a ball-on-disk configuration under an applied load of 10 N and sliding speed of 0.26 m.s−1, and a 100Cr-steel ball was used as the counterface. A significant improvement in the sliding wear response of the harder and more fracture tough WC–12 wt% Co–10 wt% VC alloy compared to the WC–12 wt% Co alloy was found. Analysis of the worn surfaces by scanning electron microscopy showed that the wear mechanisms included plastic deformation, preferential binder removal, adhesion, and carbide grain cracking and fragmentation.

Study of Interactive Stresses in Thin WC-Co Coating of Thick Mild Steel Substrate Using High-Precision Neutron Diffraction

Investigations of interaction residual stresses between thin WC-Co surface coated layers on thick mild steel substrates have successfully been performed with neutron diffraction. This systematic approach was conducted on the reference grit-blasted substrates and their HVOF coated WC-Co products. Using a sub-millimeter gauge volume, precisely positioned, the stress gradient through the coated and non-coated substrates were determined and used to derive the coating stress condition prevailing in the thin coating by applying the stress balance (Stoney) approach. In addition, the average stress in each 200 μm thick coating was measured directly with very good agreement obtained between the calculated and measured stress values. Investigations were extended to determine the thermal nature of the residual stresses by studying the annealed counterpart samples as well to follow the evolution of the residual stress upon annealing.