Performance testing of supercoarse sintered carbides with alternative nickel-based matrices in the context of mechanical, tribological, thermal and metallographic investigations

The recent advances in rock, coal, gas and oil drilling under continuously increasing loads and increased cutting speeds motivate the interest in and development of coarse and supercoarse sintered carbides. Complex drilling conditions are best simulated during in-service tests but their objectiveness and reliability are often problematic. Therefore, performance testing of real cutting tools in controlled conditions is of great importance. New grades of supercoarse hardmetals with nickel-based binders and relevant mining tools were designed and manufactured. Performance tests consisting in controlled rotary mining of a homogeneous artificial mineral block showed significantly lower wear of the experimental sinters (24–69%) in comparison with the classical cobalt matrix counterpart. The performed mechanical, tribological, thermal, fractographic and substructural investigations revealed the wear micromechanism, the correlations between the results obtained as well as the factors of the increased tool performance.