Effects of carbides on abrasive wear properties and failure behaviours of high speed steels with different alloy element content

High speed steels (HSSs) are effective materials applied in aggressive environments where abrasion resistances are required because they have hard carbides and relatively ductile matrix to bind carbides. But there are many kinds of carbides in HSSs, which lead to different effect on wear properties of HSSs. In this paper, three kinds of casting HSSs with VC, M6C or M2C type carbide were prepared respectively through the reasonable design of alloy elements, and then the effects of carbide type on wear behaviours were researched under different abrasive particle size and load using abrasive wear testing machine. The microstructures and failure behaviours of HSSs were analyzed by electron microscopy. The results showed the abrasive particle size and load had obvious effect on wear weight loss of high speed steel (HSS), but the carbide type decided the relative wear resistance of HSS. As the abrasive particle size or load increased, the wear weight loss of any HSS increased obviously. For the fine abrasive wear, the HSS with M6C had higher relative wear resistance than HSS with M2C. But the contrary was the case for the coarse abrasive wear. For any abrasive particle size and load, the HSS with VC had more excellent wear resistance than HSS with M6C or M2C type carbide. The relative wear resistance of HSS with VC was three times higher than that of HSS with M6C or M2C. The excellent wear resistance of HSS with VC was mainly attributed to VC characteristics, such as high hardness and good morphology, which can resist micro-cutting of abrasive particles efficiently.