Abstract
Owing to its excellent wear resistance and high hardness, 440C stainless steel is widely used in the manufacturing of bearing steel balls. However, in high-speed and heavy-duty environments, bearing steel balls are prone to wear and failure, which affect their service life. This study focused on 440C stainless steel bearing balls and developed a method for preparing Ti–MoS2 coatings and nano gradient structures on the surface of the steel balls via mechanical ball milling so as to improve their wear resistance. A detailed experimental study regarding the surface microstructure and friction performance of the processed balls was simultaneously conducted. The results demonstrated that the surface of the treated bearing steel ball formed a nano gradient structure and a 4 μm Ti–MoS2 coating. The surface roughness of the treated sample decreased by 9.2% and the surface microhardness (831.9 ± 6.4 HV) increased by 28.93% compared to that of the untreated sample. The friction and wear experiments demonstrated that under a load of 80 N, the wear of the treated bearing steel balls decreased by 51.23% compared to that of the untreated bearing steel balls (9.94 ± 0.41) × 106 μm3. Our findings indicate that preparing Ti–MoS2 coatings and nano gradient structures on the surface of steel balls via mechanical ball milling is an effective approach to improving the friction performance of bearing steel balls.
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