Improving metal-ceramic systems subjected to sliding contact by reinforcing the metallic counterpart with ceramic particles.

The study of sliding wear is important as it occurs in many industrial mechanical systems. In metal-ceramic sliding wear, reinforcing the metallic counterpart with ceramic particles transforms the system from a pure metal-ceramic interaction to one that contains both metal-ceramic and ceramic-ceramic interactions, which may improve the wear performance of both materials involved. This study shows that incorporating NbC particles into a bearing stainless steel reduces its wear rate against SiC, WC and Al 2 O 3 counterparts but its wear rate remained unchanged against ZrO 2. For the ceramic counterparts, SiC and WC also experienced reduced wear while Al 2 O 3 showed negligible wear across all tests. ZrO 2 , on the other hand, experienced a very high level of wear when the stainless steel contained 5 vol% NbC but the wear rate gradually decreased as the volume fraction of NbC increased to 15 vol%. Higher NbC volume fractions are thus expected to yield further improvement. • A bearing stainless steel was subjected to sliding against SiC, WC, Al 2 O 3 and ZrO 2. • Adding NbC into the steel reduced its wear loss against SiC, WC and Al 2 O 3. • Consequently, SiC and WC also experienced a reduction in wear losses. • Al 2 O 3 experienced negligible wear across all tests. • Adding low NbC amounts to the steel is very detrimental to the wear rate of ZrO 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]