Abstract
Attempts have been made to describe the influence of the production process parameters and additions of iron powders on properties of copper infiltrated HSS based composites. The powder compositions used to produce skeletons for further infiltration were M3/2, M3/2+20%Fe and M3/2+50%Fe. The powders were cold pressed at 800 MPa. The infiltration process was carried out in vacuum. Both green compacts and preforms sintered for 60 minutes at 1150 °C in vacuum were contact infiltrated with copper to yield final densities exceeding 97 % of the theoretical value. The as-infiltrated composites were tested for Brinell hardness and bending strength, and subjected to wear tests performed by block-on-ring wear tester. From the analysis of the obtained results it has been found that the mechanical properties are mainly affected by the manufacturing route and composition of porous skeletons used for infiltration. Considerable differences in hardness between materials obtained from the two infiltration routes have been observed, with lower wear rates achieved after direct infiltration of green compacts.

Key words
high speed steel, composites, infiltration, wear rate, friction coefficient

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