Investigation of wear behavior of boronized H13 steel under environment of nano-silver-added lubricants coated with different ligands

Abstract

H13 hot work tool steels are subject to high wear and surface deformation. For this reason, it is important to coat H13 steels and to protect the surface forms with lubricants that can be used in the working environment. This study aimed to increase the wear resistance of H13 hot work tool steel by boronizing and to use nano-silver-doped lubricants under working conditions. The boronizing process was carried out at 700, 800, and 900 °C for 2, 4, and 8 h in a nano-boron powder atmosphere. Wear tests were conducted under dry conditions and with nano-silver-doped colloidal suspension prepared with three different ligands. Analyses of the experimental results examined the parameters of friction coefficient, weight loss, microhardness and surface roughness. Ultra-violet (UV), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and 3D topography methods were used for visual and elemental analysis of the surfaces. According to the experimental results, an average coating thickness of 26.5 μm and hardness value of 2001 HV were obtained under conditions of 900 °C for 4 h. The nano-silver-doped colloidal suspension prepared with gelatin yielded 52% better friction coefficient, 88% better weight loss and 51.42% better surface roughness results than the dry wear conditions. It was determined that nano-silver-doped colloidal suspensions prepared with different ligands exhibited different characteristics in the wear environment.