The wear characteristics of superhard composite materials in abrasive cutting operations

A series of wear tests has been undertaken on a range of thermally stable diamond composite (TSDC) samples. Using an alumina grinding wheel as the counter surface in a newly designed wear testing rig the samples were subjected to conditions that would simulate the extremely abrasive conditions encountered in hard rock cutting operations. The thrust and cutting forces were measured using load cells and the performance of the samples was assessed from the calculated wear rates and wear coefficients. Correlations between wear rates, wear coefficients, wear flats and the thrust forces were established and analysed in terms of material behaviour. A cemented tungsten carbide (WC) sample was also studied for comparative purposes.