Comparison of abrasive wear in diamond composites and WC-based coatings

The abrasive wear of a series of diamond and tungsten carbide (WC)-based metal matrix composites has been examined using both low stress scratching abrasion (rubber wheel) and high stress grinding abrasion (pin-on-flat) tests. The hardfacings consisted of two diamond-based composites and four WC-based composites, which contained a variation in volume fraction and size of the hard phase. Measurements of wear loss have been correlated with the microstructural characteristics of the hard phase and the matrix. The rubber wheel and pin abrasion tests have produced a similar mechanism of wear in both the diamond and WC-based composites. The abrasive wear loss in both the diamond and WC-based composites has been shown to decrease sharply by a factor of 5 with increase in mean size and volume fraction of the hard phase irrespective of the type of particles. Wear loss has shown little correlation with the variation in hardness of the matrix within the series of composites.