Characterization of Wear Mechanisms in Distorted Conical Picks After Coal Cutting

The interest in understanding the wear mechanisms of cemented carbide (CC) is not a new development. For a long time, there have been studies on different wear mechanisms under different coal/rock cutting conditions. These studies have helped improving the quality of CC, thereby preventing such wearing of tools. Due to highly unpredictable character of coal/rock, the wearing phenomena cannot be attributed to one single domain of conditions. However, one conclusion that can be drawn in this context is that, under similar working conditions, similar types of CC undergo similar nature of wearing process. An optimum combination of high wear resistance, strength and hardness has facilitated widespread application of CC in the field of mining engineering. The abrasive parts of the mining tools are made of CC materials. The current study is focussed on a detailed characterization of the wear mechanisms of conical picks, which are used for coal mining. Conical picks consist of a steel body with an inserted cone-shaped CC tip. After being used for a certain period of time, both, the CC tip and the steel body get distorted. In this study, selection of appropriate samples was followed by critical observation of them through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). In the previous study, we explained the distortion process of both, the tip as well as the body, using the SEM images. For the present study, two samples were taken from our previous investigation for further analysis. Three other samples were also included in the present study. Seven different types of wear mechanisms, such as, cracking and crushing, cavity formation, coal intermixing, chemical degradation along with abrasion, long and deep cracks, heating effect and body deformation were observed in the five tool samples.