Materials of high hardness and wear resistance joined to stainless steel by 2C-MIM

Many technical products such as automobiles, tools and mechanical machines demand for metal components that are weldable as well as withstand abrasive wear during application. Weldable MIM materials such as the typically applied stainless steel 316L possess a rather low wear resistance with a hardness of less than 300 HV. One possibility to improve the wear resistance is to connect another material to the surface, corner or edge where the wear forces are effective. This paper shows that stainless steel 316L can be combined with a CoCr alloy, a WC-Co metal matrix composite (MMC) and a WC-Ni MMC by two component metal injection molding (2C-MIM). The hardness is locally improved to 450 HV with the CoCr alloy and to 1150 HV with the WC MMC's. The material bonded connection between 316L and the CoCr alloy shows a tensile strength of 630 MPa which is comparable to the strength of 316L.