Research on wear resistance of high speed steel with high vanadium content

Different microstructures and mechanical behaviors were obtained after vanadium and carbon contents of high speed steel were changed, and the abrasive wear property of which were studied. Results show that the wear resistance of high speed steel generally depends on the hardness and microstructures. At hardness of lower than HRC58, the wear resistance of the alloys mainly depends on its hardness. At hardness of higher than HRC58, the wear resistance of the alloys mainly depends on the amount, morphology and distribution of VC in the matrix. When vanadium and carbon content is up to 8.15–10.20% and 2.70–3.15%, respectively, the large amount of and uniformly distributed spherical or lumpy VC carbides can be obtained, which can resist the micro-cutting of Al2O3 abrasive, and minimizes width and depth of the furrow. This leads to the excellent wear resistance of high speed steel with high vanadium content.