Study on Sliding Wear Characteristics of Tungsten Carbide Particle Reinforced Copper Matrix Composites Under Electrical Contact

Tungsten carbide (WC) particles reinforced copper (Cu) composites (1 similar to 5 wt.% WC/Cu) were fabricated by a hot-pressed sintering process and their mechanical, electrical properties and sliding wear behaviors were studied. The results show that the relative density and electrical conductivity of the sintered composites decrease whereas the microhardness increase, with increasing the mass fraction of WC reinforcements. During the sliding wear tests without electrical current, the wear rate of the WC/Cu composites decreases with an increase of WC reinforcement mass fraction. The increase in the normal load leads to the increase of wear rate. The wear rate under electrical contact increases with the increase of electrical current density. The dominant wear mechanism under electrical contact sliding conditions is the combination of the abrasive wear and oxidations resulted from electrical currents. The WC/Cu composites are promising electrical contact materials to restrain spark/arc discharge during the electrical contact sliding.