Wear performance of sintered boride-based composites via powder metallurgy

Powder metallurgy offers the unique ability to produced novel composites for demanding applications that are not possible using other metallurgical techniques. These novel composites, ranging from tool steels to cemented carbides, offer the ultra-high hardness of the high temperature phase but the ductility of a low temperature matrix phase. This study examines the wear performance of several new PIM based composites using a boride reinforcement. These borides were either admired in a powder blend or formed in-situ during sintering. In addition, these composites were compared to heat treated tool steels, cemented carbides and hard coatings. Thus, these composites exhibit extremely high abrasive resistance, as compared to monolithic materials, but do not suffer the poor toughness associated with the hard phase. This paper also examines slip casting as a viable forming technology for metal powders.