Wear transition metal carbides/nitrides

The combination of properties discussed above makes the transition metal carbides, nitrides, and their solid solutions ideal materials for applications requiring rigidity and resistance to deformation, abrasive wear, and corrosion. 

Transition element carbides and nitrides are applied as cutting tools because of their extreme hardness and wear resistance. In some cases nitrides and carbides (e.g., of titanium) form solid solutions over the entire compositional range other transition metal nitrides and carbides exhibit fairly different structures and are not completely soluble. Carbon contents within the range of few percentage points usually do not influence the mechanical properties of transition metal nitrides, and vice versa. Hence, completely carbon-free nitrides or nitrogen-free carbides are not required, especially for the titanium compounds. 

Carbides and nitrides of transition metals are usually hard and some of them are used as hard materials. Tungsten carbide, which was briefly described above, is a major component of cutting tools and wear-resistant materials. Titanium carbide. Tie, and nitride, TiN, are two other major hard materials that are widely used in tools. They also find application as hard coatings (in particular, TiN [177]) and components of ceramic matrix composites [178]. Both TiC and TiN show a very... 

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