Effect of TiC Contents on Mechanical Properties and Wear Resistance of Iron-Based Composites
Hulin DONG,Haiping BAO,Jianhong PENG()
Department of Physics and Electron Information Engineering, Qinghai University for Nationality, Xining 810007, China
Cite this article:
Hulin DONG,Haiping BAO,Jianhong PENG. Effect of TiC Contents on Mechanical Properties and Wear Resistance of Iron-Based Composites. Acta Metall Sin, 2019, 55(8): 1049-1057.
The TiC particle reinforced iron-based composite materials were prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) and vacuum hot-pressing (HPing) using titanium (99.9%, 75 μm), graphite (>99.9%, 10 μm) and grey cast iron (>99.5%, 25 μm) powders as starting materials. And TiC particles were also in situ synthesized during HPing. The phase composition, microstructures and distribution of TiC of as-fabricated composite materials were investigated using XRD and FESEM equipped with EDS. The density, hardness, compressive stress-strain and two-body abrasive wear behavior of as-fabricated composite materials were tested using densitometer, rockwell hardness tester, electro-mechanical universal testing machines and pin-on-disk type two body abrasive wear tester, respectively. The results confirm that the in situ synthesized TiC particulate reinforced iron-based composite materials only have TiC and α-Fe phases when sintered at 1200 ℃ for 60 min at the pressure of 70 MPa. The TiC particles were dispersed homogeneously in the iron matrix. The composite with TiC content of 40% (TiC40/Fe) possesses the best comprehensive performance among all as-produced TiC/Fe composites. Its relative density and hardness are 94% and 34 HRC (without heat treatment), respectively. And the compressive property of the TiC40/Fe composite is the best too. Its elastic modulus, yield strength, maximum compressive strength and fracture strain are 19.6 GPa, 420 MPa, 605 MPa and 6.1%, respectively. The TiC40/Fe composite has the best wear resistance, especially at 1.5 kg load, its relative wear resistance is 2.67 times higher than that of pure grey casting iron.
Fund: National International Science and Technology Cooperation Project((No.2015DFR50990));International Technology Cooperation Project of Qinghai Province(Nos.2014-HZ-819 and 2015-HZ-811)
Fig.1 XRD spectra of pure grey cast iron and TiC particle reinforced iron-based composite materials
Fig.2 SEM images of TiC particle reinforced iron-based composite materials 20%TiC/Fe (a), 30%TiC/Fe (b), 40%TiC/Fe (c), 50%TiC/Fe (d), and EDS of zone A (e) and zone B (f) in the enlarged view (inset) of Fig.2c
Sample
ρt / (g·cm-3)
ρm / (g·cm-3)
ρr / %
Porosity / %
20%TiC/Fe
7.240
6.778
93.62
6.38
30%TiC/Fe
6.725
6.352
94.45
5.55
40%TiC/Fe
6.258
6.042
96.54
3.46
50%TiC/Fe
5.990
5.464
91.21
8.79
Table 1 Densification of in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composites
Fig.3 Rockwell hardnesses of in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composites
Fig.4 Compressive stress-strain curves of in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composites and pure grey cast iron
Fig.5 Photos of pure grey cast iron (a) and in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composites 20%TiC/Fe (b), 30% TiC/Fe(c), 40%TiC/Fe (d) and 50%TiC/Fe (e) after compressive testing (h—height)
Load / kg
Pure grey iron
20%TiC/Fe
30%TiC/Fe
40%TiC/Fe
50%TiC/Fe
0.5
0.0059
0.0056
0.0037
0.0025
0.0045
1.0
0.0089
0.0079
0.0045
0.0036
0.0053
1.5
0.0105
0.0084
0.0047
0.0039
0.0061
2.0
0.0113
0.0086
0.0052
0.0044
0.0067
2.5
0.0116
0.0087
0.0066
0.0054
0.0077
Table 2 Volume losses of pure grey cast iron and in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composites
Load / kg
20%TiC/Fe
30%TiC/Fe
40%TiC/Fe
50%TiC/Fe
0.5
1.06
1.59
2.33
1.70
1.0
1.11
1.98
2.48
1.75
1.5
1.39
2.38
2.67
1.90
2.0
1.12
2.06
2.48
1.45
2.5
1.34
1.51
2.16
1.75
Table 3 Relative abrasive wear resistance of in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composite materials
Fig.6 SEM images of the worn surfaces of pure grey casting iron (a) and in situ TiC particle reinforced iron-based composite materials 20%TiC/Fe (b), 30%TiC/Fe (c), 40%TiC/Fe (d) and 50%TiC/Fe (e) under load of 2.5 kg (Arrows show the wear directions)
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