Investigation of the structure and relative erosion resistance of electrodes-tools made from powder materials based on copper and carbide, carbonitride, tungsten carbosilicide of titanium
The purpose of the research was to study the physical, mechanical and operational properties of electrode tools made from composite materials based on copper with the addition of carbide, carbonitride, titanium carbosilicide in the erosion of tool steel. Composite materials based on copper with different contents of the refractory phase were made by powder metallurgy. During the sintering of the systems “copper-titanium carbide” and “copper titanium carbonitride” chemical interaction was not observed, in the copper-crab-silicate titanium system, dissociation of the compound was established de-siliconization from titanium carbosilicide grains, part of titanium carbosilicide grains was converted to a solid solution of carbon based on Titanium silicide Ti<sub>5</sub>Si<sub>3</sub>(C) and small amounts of titanium carbide, silicon carbide and titanium silicide TiSi<sub>2</sub>. It was found that with an increase in the concentration of the refractory additive from 12.5 to 80 vol.% increases the hardness and strength of composite materials, as well as the electrical resistivity. The lowest porosity (6%) was in materials containing titanium carbosilicide, regardless of its content. The flexural strength was 2 times higher in systems with titanium carbosilicide in comparison with carbide and titanium carbonitride. When investigating the relative wear of the EI during the piercing of tool steel on draft modes, it was established that all the systems studied have better wear resistance than pure copper and copper-tungsten carbide material. The accuracy of the treatment with copper-carbolicidal titanium was higher than with pure copper and other materials studied. The least relative wear during titanium insertion was observed when using an electrode “copper-12 vol.% Titanium carbide”.