Abrasion wear behavior of WC–10Ni3Al cermet with plate-like triangular prismatic WC grains

Abstract The abrasion wear behavior of WC–10Ni 3 Al cermet with plate-like triangular prismatic WC grains has been evaluated using a ball-on-flat tribometer. WC–8Co has also been tested under the same conditions for the purpose of comparison. The results showed that WC–10Ni 3 Al has lower friction coefficient and wear loss than WC–8Co under the same contact load. Comparing with WC–8Co, neither binder phase extrusion nor surface delamination is observed on the worn surface of WC–10Ni 3 Al under the examined loads. The higher abrasion wear resistance of WC–10Ni 3 Al is attributed to the synergistic mechanisms of its high hardness and sub-surface crack resistance induced by the intermetallic alloy Ni 3 Al binder and the existence of a large amount of plate-like triangular prismatic WC grains.