Influence of WC on third body behaviour during fretting of cold-sprayed Cu MoS2WC composites

Abstract Fretting wear of cold-sprayed Cu MoS 2 and Cu MoS 2 WC composites rubbing against AISI 440C was studied under gross slip regime at a high normal force of 150 N. Third body rheology was expressed using tribological circuit according to morphology observations of the contact. WC particles boosted generation and ejection of large wear particles during running-in and early steady state yet promoted more stable and lower third body formation and ejection over subsequent test. This led to a considerably reduced wear rate (∼80 × 10 −6  mm 3 /Nm) comparing to that of Cu MoS 2 (∼210 × 10 −6  mm 3 /Nm) during steady state. The 12 wt% WC particles were able to prevent rapid detachment that was induced by MoS 2 , which was resulted from microwedging and pinning of the WC fragments.