Abrasive erosive wear of powder steels and cermets

Composite materials produced by powder metallurgy provide solutions to many engineering applications that require materials with high abrasive wear resistance. The actual wear behaviour of a material is associated with many external factors (abrasive particle size, velocity and angularity) and intrinsic material properties of wear (hardness, toughness, Young modulus, etc.). Hardness and toughness properties of wear resistant materials are highly dependent on the content of the reinforcing phase, its size and on the mechanical properties of the constituent phase. This study is focused on the analysis of the (AEW) abrasive erosive wear (solid particle erosion) using different wear devices and abrasives. Powder materials (steels, cermets and hardmetals) were studied. Wear resistance of materials and wear mechanisms were studied and compared with those of commercial steels. Based on the results of wear studies, surface degradation mechanisms are proposed. The following parameters characterizing the materials were found necessary in materials creation and selection: hardness (preferably in scale comparable with impact), type of structure (preferably hardmetal type) and wear parameters characterizing material removal at plastic deformation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.