Wear resistant member, wear resistant device and method for manufacturing the wear resistant member

1. A wear resistant member, comprising a silicon nitride sintered body having a volume of 4000 mm 3 or more, said silicon nitride sintered body comprising:

1 to 5 mass % of a rare earth component in terms of rare earth element,

1 to 6 mass % of an Al component in terms of Al element,

10 to 3500 ppm of an Fe component in terms of Fe element, and

10 to 1000 ppm of a Ca component in terms of Ca element,

wherein a β-phase ratio of silicon nitride crystal grains is 95% or more,

a maximum longer diameter of silicon nitride crystal grains is 40 μm or less, and

variation in each of Vickers hardness and fracture toughness of an inner portion of the wear resistant member is within a range of ±10%, said inner portion of the wear resistant member has a fracture toughness of 5.5 MPa·m 1/2 or more,

said inner portion of the wear resistant member has a Vickers hardness of 1380 or more,

said silicon nitride sintered body has a porosity of 1% or less, and a maximum diameter of void is 3 μm or less,

an average aspect ratio, which is defined as an average value of respective aspect ratios of silicon nitride crystal grains, is 2 or more, and

said silicon nitride sintered body has a number ratio of 5% or more, when the number ratio is defined as a ratio of a number of columnar crystal grains each having a longitudinal diameter of 3 μm or more with respect to a whole number of crystal grains constituting the silicon nitride sintered body.

2. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , wherein said silicon nitride sintered body comprises 0.1 to 5 mass % of at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Hf, W, Mo, Ta, Nb, and Cr.

3. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , wherein an aggregation size of a grain boundary phase component in said silicon nitride sintered body is 20 μm or less.

4. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , in the form of a part for at least one selected from the group consisting of a cutting tool, a rolling body of a bearing, a valve member, and a rolling jig.

5. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , in the form of a spherical body having a diameter of 20 mm or more.

6. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , having a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.5 μm or less.

7. The wear resistant member according to claim 5 , wherein said silicon nitride sintered body has a double-ball crush strength of 100 N/mm 2 or more.

8. A wear resistant device, comprising a plurality of said wear resistant member according to claim 1 .

9. A method of manufacturing the wear resistant member according to claim 1 , the method comprising:

(A) mixing a silicon nitride material powder containing 10 to 3500 ppm of an Fe component in terms of Fe element and 10 to 1000 ppm of a Ca component in terms of Ca element with 1 to 5 mass % of a rare earth component in terms of rare earth element and 1 to 6 mass % of an Al component in terms of Al element as sintering agent powders, to thereby prepare a material powder mixture;

(B) molding said material powder mixture to thereby form a molded body;

(C) sintering said molded body at a sintering temperature of 1600 to 1950° C. wherein a heating rate at a temperature range of 1400° C. to a maximum sintering temperature is 20° C./hour or less, and a retention time for holding the molded body at the maximum sintering temperature is 4 hours or more, to thereby obtain a primary sintered body having a relative density of 80 to 98%; and

(D) further sintering said primary sintered body so that the relative density is further increased to exceed 98%.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the further sintering (D) is performed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) said primary sintered body such that said primary sintered body is heated to a temperature of 80% to 100% of the maximum sintering temperature set in the sintering (C).

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the sintering (C) is performed such that a heating time for heating the molded body from a temperature of 1400 ° C. to the maximum sintering temperature is 10 hours or more.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising grinding a secondary sintered body after the further sintering (D) so that a surface roughness (Ra) of the secondary sintered body is 0.5 μm or less.

13. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , wherein said void has a maximum diameter of 1 to 2 μm.

14. The wear resistant member according to claim 1 , wherein said silicon nitride crystal grain has an average aspect ratio of 10 or less.