FIBROUS MONOLITH WEAR RESISTANT COMPONENTS FOR THE MINING INDUSTRY

The work performed on this program was to develop wear resistant, tough FM composite materials with efforts focused on WC-Co based FM systems. The materials were developed for use in mining industry wear applications. Components of interest were drill bit inserts for drilling blast holes. Other component applications investigated included wear plates for a variety of equipment such as pit shovels, wear surfaces for conveyors, milling media for ball milling operations, hydrocyclone cones, grader blades and dozer teeth. Cross-cutting technologies investigated included hot metal extrusion dies, drill bits for circuit board fabrication, cutting tools for cast iron and aluminum machining. An important part of the work was identification of the standard materials used in drilling applications. A materials trade study to determine those metals and ceramics used for mining applications provided guidance for the most important materials to be investigated. WC-Co and diamond combinations were shown to have the most desirable properties. Other considerations such as fabrication technique and the ability to consolidate shifted the focus away from diamond materials and toward WC-Co. Cooperating partners such as Kennametal and Kyocera assisted with supplies, evaluations of material systems, fabricated parts and suggestions for cross-cutting technology applications for FM architectures. Kennametal provided the raw materials (WC-Co and Al-TiCN powders) for the extent of the material evaluations. Kyocera shared their research into various FM systems and provided laboratory testing of fabricated materials. Field testing provided by partners Superior Rock Bit and Brady Mining and Construction provided insight into the performance of the fabricated materials under actual operational conditions. Additional field testing of cross-cutting technology, the extrusion of hot metals, at Extruded Metals showed the potential for additional market development