Reciprocating wear behaviour of TiC-stainless steel cermets

TiC based cermets have been prepared with three different grades of stainless steel binder (304L, 316L and 410L). The cermets were densified by vacuum melt infiltration, at 1500 °C, which allows the steel binder content to be readily varied from 5 to 30 vol%. The cermets were assessed for their hardness and indentation fracture resistance using Vickers testing. The reciprocating wear response was evaluated using a ball on flat geometry, with a WC-Co counter face sphere. It was shown that the coefficient of friction increases with increasing steel binder content, and also with increasing load and wear time. Similarly, the specific wear rate increases with both steel binder content and applied load, but was largely independent of the steel grade used.