Influence of wire-EDM on high temperature sliding wear behavior of WC10Co(Cr/V) cemented carbide

This paper reports the friction and wear response of WC–10%Co(Cr/V) cemented carbide with different surface finishes, attained by grinding (G) and wire-EDM, respectively, during sliding experiments at 400°C. For comparison, tests under the same conditions were carried out at 25°C. The wear experiments were performed under a normal force of 14N, which produced a Hertzian maximum pressure of 3.10GPa, and a sliding speed of 0.3m/s against WC–6%Co(Cr/V) balls of 6mm diameter. At 25°C the average values of the friction coefficients were 0.36±0.04 and 0.39±0.06 for the ground and wire-EDM surface finishes, respectively. The mechanical behavior of both systems at 25°C was assessed by carrying out analytical calculations of the stress field created by a circular sliding contact under a spherical indenter, where the residual stresses were considered. The theoretical results are in agreement with the experimental data, indicating that the wire-EDM sample has a specific wear rate, which is approximately 3.1 times greater than that corresponding to the G sample at 25°C. At 400°C, an increase in the friction coefficients takes place up to values of 0.75±0.1 and 0.71±0.8, for the ground and wire-EDM surface finishes, respectively. The increase was associated to an adhesive mechanism, which is more pronounced for the G sample. However, for the wire-EDM sample this increase was more linked to a marked abrasive mechanism. The wear rates for both samples at 400°C are similar to those obtained at 25°C, which indicates that apparently the test temperature does not have an important effect on the wear rate. However, it is known that temperature influences considerably the residual stress nature. Therefore, these results were explained by taking into account the wear mechanisms between the tribopairs in view of the mechanical characteristics and the morphological features obtained from SEM coupled with EDS analysis. •The effect of machining on the friction of cemented carbide tribopairs has been investigated.•A correlation between surface integrity, sliding contact and residual stresses has been established.•The wear mechanism of cemented carbides with different properties has been studied at 25 and 400°C.•The morphological features of the wear tracks obtained by means of SEM-EDS, have been analyzed.•The relationship between the critical flaw size of the grinded and wire-EDM samples has been established.