Fig. 1 Schematic of the ball-on-disk wear test system [25]

Fig. 2 Variation of the density with TiB2 contents of the sintered composites

Fig. 3 Results of hardness measurements (HV0.3) for the composites

Fig. 4 Typical SEM images of austenitic stainless steel a; the composite with 8 vol% TiB2 which was sintered at a temperature of 1,300 °C and pressure of (7.0 ± 0.2) GPa b

Fig. 5 Typical friction coefficient curves of the materials during testing of unreinforced austenitic stainless steel a, composites reinforced with different contents of TiB2 of 2 vol% b, 4 vol% c, 6 vol% d, 8 vol% e

Fig. 6 Variation of specific wear rate with TiB2 content of the composites sintered at different temperatures and pressures

Fig. 7 Variation of the friction coefficients with TiB2 content of the composites sintered at different temperatures and pressures

Fig. 8 SEM micrograph of the worn track on the surface of the composites with 8 vol% TiB2 sintered at temperatures of 1,300 °C and pressure of (7.0 ± 0.2) GPa

Fig. 9 SEM micrographs of the worn surface of composites sintered at temperatures of 1,300 °C and pressure of (7.0 ± 0.2) GPa that with 2 vol% a, 4 vol% b, 6 vol% c, 8 vol% d TiB2 additions and the corresponding EDS analyses of the selected point 1 e, point 2 f in d