material engineers nust "MISIS collaboration with industrial partners have developed a new generation of super-hard alloys for mining equipment. Made of these tools and machines will be used for the extraction of minerals under extreme conditions of the Arctic. Production testing in November 2019 on mine "Polysaevskaya" (Kuzbass, Kemerovo region) showed that miner, equipped with cutters of new alloys, double superior strength of domestic and foreign counterparts.
the Major factors determining the efficiency of mining equipment, working in conditions of overloading the system are the stability of drill bits and coal cutters to wear and destruction. Traditional hard alloys from tool when working in extremely severe conditions at high shock loads quickly break down and wear out. In mining in the far North and the Arctic task is complicated by large differences in temperatures at which a standard hard alloys and ceramic materials become brittle and disintegrate in the contact zone with the treated species. The alloy, which is used, such equipment must be durable and at the same time flexible, so if temperature variations did not appear cracked and chipped.
In the framework of the state program on development of Arctic scientists of nust "MISIS" have developed a new coarse-grained hard alloys, increasing the strength and durability of mining equipment in 2 times. These materials have a special structure with multiple levels of hierarchy. This means that the material contains structural components with very different grain size, from 6 to 8 micrometers (µm) to 10 nm.
"Development is a technology of new generation coarse-grained hard metals having a particularly homogeneous structure with rounded grains of tungsten carbide and cobalt nanomodification ligament. Due to the introduction of an alloy of functional alloying elements and optimization of manufacturing of, plastic in a cobalt binder highlighted the strengthening of platelet-shaped nanoparticles with a characteristic size of 4-5 nm. This provides a simultaneous increase in fracture toughness, strength and wear resistance of the material," said the project Manager, doctor of technical Sciences, Professor Evgeny Levashov.
Industrial tests of the new hard alloy was carried out at the end of November 2019 in the Kuzbass mine "Polysaevskaya", developed by the coal mining company SUEK. During the tests, the tunnel processor CP-21 at a depth of 250 metres processed more than 700 cubic meters of rock. Mountain cutters of new hard alloys showed a complete lack of chips, while their share by 80-100% exceeded the best analogues.
End users of the mining tool of the developed alloys are enterprises specializing in mining/quarry extraction of rocks of different strength (coal, rock salt, kimberlites, Apatite, etc.) in particular, JSC "Siberian coal energy company", JSC "Mechel", JSC "ALROSA", JSC "Apatite" etc. the Introduction of the development will significantly improve the efficiency of mining operations on the deposits of the Arctic region of the Russian Federation.
the Work is done within the Federal program "Research and development on priority directions of development of scientific-technological complex of Russia for 2014-2020".
