Titanium-molybdenum carbonitride as light-weight and wear resistant monolithic material

This paper presents the friction and wear behaviour of monolithic titanium-molybdenum carbonitride and tungsten carbide. These materials have been tested sliding against themselves, carbons, fibre reinforced glasses and molybdenum coatings and compared to other ceramics and ceramics composites under unlubricated condition up to 800 °C and 6 m/s. Self-mated sliding couples of titanium-molybdenum carbonitride display, especially under high-temperature friction, a pronounced wear resistance compared to ceramics and ceramic–ceramic composites. This very good property is due to the tribo-oxidative formation of so-called “lubricious oxides”, e.g. Magnéli phases of rutile. They exhibit sliding wear rates under unlubricated friction up to 800 °C as known from mixed/boundary lubrication. Within the different test conditions, the wear rates of a variety of stationary monolithic materials samples sliding against rotating specimen of (Ti, Mo)(C, N) are always in the group with the lowest wear rates. The association of the wear resistance, mechanical strength, fracture toughness and low density makes the (Ti, Mo)(C, N) material a complete solution for complex customer demands.