Evaluation of Tribotechnical Characteristics of Experimental Hard Alloy WC+(Co–Fe–Cu) During Friction Without Lubrication Against Stainless Steel

This work is devoted to studying tribotechnical characteristics of an experimental hard alloy, developed on the basis of the standard VK8 composition, during friction without lubricant against stainless steel 12H18N9T. The new composition is obtained by modifying the binder for tungsten carbide by partial replacement of cobalt with a (Fe+Cu) metal group. Comparative tribological tests of the experimental composition and VK8 were carried out according to the “pin on disk” friction scheme under a constant pressure and sliding speed at room temperature and with artificial heating of the tribocontact zone up to 300 °C. In the first case, the difference in the value of linear wear for both tribocontact alloys was minimal, while the experimental composition was characterized by the lowest friction coefficient. In the experiments with sample heating, the experimental alloy showed the least linear wear, while the friction coefficients for both cutting materials were statistically indistinguishable. The study of the friction surfaces also showed that the process of friction interaction between the experimental composition and stainless steel is characterized by a more intense (in comparison with VK8) adhesive transfer of the counterbody material to the indenter surface, as evidenced by numerous build-ups on hard-alloy samples and high values of the average roughness of friction tracks.