Titanium Carbide-Graphite Composites

Pure titanium carbide, titanium carbide with free graphite, titanium carbidevanadium carbide alloy with free graphite, and titanium carbide with boron and free graphite were tested for friction and wear at 22,600, and 900 C. Test pins of the four compositions were machined from ignots prepared from melts. The test pins were drawn across hot pressed titanium carbide wear plates with 5 newtons of normal force. The lowest friction coefficient at 22 C was 0.12 obtained with pure titanium carbide. The lowest friction coefficient at 900 C was 0.19 obtained with titanium carbide with boron and free graphite. Titanium carbide based materials offer a great deal of flexibility in terms of possible composite compositions, all of which can be prepared from a melt. Further development in this area would entail selecting a specific applications and performing friction and wear tests to optimize behavior under those load, atmosphere, and sliding speed conditions.