Vanadium carbide has outstanding tribological behaviour, superior to other similar carbides in Groups IVB and VB, except TiC. Most research on vanadium carbide uses it as an additive to enhance wear performance, inhibit grain growth and decrease density, and it has also been used as a partial replacement for WC in WC-Co. This work is on alloys of VC-Ni to provide potential lighter and more corrosion-resistant materials, and VC-Ni alloys were made by this method for the first time, and evaluated. Three alloys of compositions VC-4Ni, VC-10Ni and VC-22.1Ni (at.%) were produced by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The mixed powders were sintered at different temperatures and pressures to optimize the sintered density and hardness of the alloys. The best alloy was VC-10Ni (at.%), which had the highest density and the highest hardness.
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