A material has been created in the Far East that can drastically reduce equipment wear. We are talking about a new version of tungsten carbide — one of the hardest substances used in industry. According to the developers, it turned out to be 1.2–26 times more resistant than conventional alloys. This means that drills, machines and other mechanisms will be able to work much longer without replacing parts.
Why Ordinary Materials Wear Out Quickly
For more than a hundred years, hard alloys based on tungsten carbide, which are connected by a metal binder — cobalt, have been the basis of durable tools.
It is cobalt that makes the material more "viscous", but it has a weak spot — it is softer than abrasive particles such as sand or rocks. During operation, this bond gradually breaks down and is washed out. As a result, the carbide grains lose support, begin to crumble, and the part quickly wears out.
What Exactly Did the Scientists Change
Researchers from the Far Eastern Federal University and the Khabarovsk Federal Research Center of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed abandoning cobalt altogether.
Instead, they created a monolithic structure of pure tungsten carbide. Scientists used the spark plasma sintering method — it allows you to "assemble" a material from nanoparticles.
The size of these particles is 1000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. They were compressed into a single product with a density of 99.94% at a temperature of about 2000°C.
According to Maxim Dvornik, head of the powder metallurgy laboratory of the KHFIC FEB RAS, the resulting material turned out to be not only harder, but also cheaper than existing analogues.
How Much Stronger It Is — Tested in Practice
To confirm the result, scientists conducted a series of tests. They compared three industrial alloys with different cobalt contents and three experimental samples of the new material.
All samples were subjected to microabrasive wear — they were actually "ground" with pastes with particles of different sizes and hardness.
As a result, the wear rate of the new samples was significantly lower than that of all industrial analogues. Even the hardest existing alloy wore out 1.2 times faster than the "softest" new material. And compared to the most common alloy, the new development turned out to be 26 times more durable.
Where the Discovery of Far Eastern Scientists Can Be Useful
The new material is suitable for operation in the most difficult conditions. First of all, it is drilling equipment for the oil and gas and mining industries.
It can also be used in dies for drawing thin wire, in precision bearings operating without lubrication, and in pump parts that pump liquids with sand, cement and other abrasive particles.
The rejection of cobalt solves not only a technical, but also an economic problem. This metal is expensive and scarce, and its main deposits are located in politically unstable regions of the world. The new technology makes it possible to reduce dependence on its supplies.
Scientists plan to continue experiments to select the optimal combination of grain size and density, and therefore — to further increase the strength of the material. The main task is to bring the development to industrial application.