Wear and thermal behaviour of M2 high-speed steel reinforced with NbC composite

This work studies a high speed steel composite reinforced with NbC and using Cu3P as sintering activator. High speed steels can be used as cutting material and their cutting capability could be improved if hardness, and as a consequence, wear behaviour is increased. One way for increasing these properties is to reinforce them with hard particles. NbC have been demonstrate like one good option, but with the problem of its low interaction with the HSS matrix. One way for solving this low reactivity is to add a sintering activator that interacts with the matrix and increases the joint with the reinforcement. The thermal behaviour has been studied in order to optimize the sintering parameters, as well the best heat treatments conditions. This behavior has been determined through differential dilatometry. The wear behaviour has been studied through a pin on disk test using Al2O3 Of high hardness as countermaterial. Finally, mechanical properties and complete metallographic study have been performed. (C) 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.