Two-body abrasive wear property of cementite

The abrasive wear property of single-phase cementite and cementite–iron composite, processed by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering, were investigated using a pin-abrasion test on fixed alumina abrasive grains. Single-phase cementite and cementite–iron composite had good wear resistances at applied pressures lower than 0.15 MPa. However, at applied pressures higher than 0.31 MPa, steels having a cementite volume fraction higher than 75% were intensely worn. In the former case, the wear mode of bulk cementite was ductile, and flow-type chips were observed on the worn surface. In the latter case, the wear mode was brittle, and brittle fracture chips were observed on the worn surface.