TRIBOLOGICAL BEHAVIOUR OF WC-Ni CERAMIC COMPOSITES SLIDING AGAINST TUNGSTEN CARBIBE COUNTER FACE

In this paper, the wear characteristics of Tungsten carbide and Nickel (WC-Ni) composites has been studied for different volume fraction of Tungsten carbide and Nickel-composites with different working conditions to determine the important characteristics like coefficient of friction and wear rate were obtained from the experimental results. The experiments were carried out using a pin-on-roller conFigureuration against a tungsten carbide disk counter face under different sliding speeds, contact load and time. The factor value ranges from 100 to 500 rpm, 10N to 50N and 15min to 75min respectively. The worn out sample and wear debris were examined using scanning electron microscope to reveal the wear features of the test sample of WC/Ni. The test results shows that the wear rates of the composites are gradually reduced over the sliding speed range for both contact loads. Using Minitab software were used to construct the wear maps. The present study focuses to develop wear transition maps and wear mechanism maps for the surface of 5% Ni compositions of WC-Ni composite material. Micro structural characterization results established different dominant mechanisms at different sliding speeds, namely, abrasion, delamination, oxidation, adhesion, thermal softening and melting.