CRM free hard metals for high abrasive wear applications

Wear of materials causes a big share of the annual costs in many industrial sectors like mining. In wear parts exposed to the highest wear load WC-Co hardmetal inserts are used to enhance lifetime. Concerns about supply risk of Critical Raw Materials (W and Co) and health risk of Cobalt's carcinogenic nature have led demand for more sustainable, cost effective material solutions. In this study novel TiC based hard metals are compared against grades of WC-Co typically used in mining under harsh abrasive conditions. Multi-scale materials modelling is utilized to visualize behavior of materials in different loading conditions and further guiding development work to new material compositions. For the developed materials, Crushing-Pin-on-Disc wear testing simulating high abrasive wear conditions in mining applications is used to evaluate their wear resistance. Conducted tests showed an abrasion resistance comparable to WC-Co with TiC based hardmetals by modification of the content and composition of the metallic binder.