Simulation of roller guide wear in a high temperature test rig

Abstract

Simulation of roller guide wear in rod or wire rolling mills has been performed in a high temperature test rig where the specimen rollers are in intermittent contact with the periphery of a heated rotating steel disc. By varying the time in contact during each cycle and deliberately superimposing a sliding component on the rolling contact, three components of guide roller wear were separated and quantified. The dominant component is wear due to sliding at the contact surface during rolling, followed by the isolated contribution from absolute rolling, while wear during roller acceleration is of less importance. Surface studies and the observed linear increase in wear vs. number of test cycles together with the linear increase in wear rate with normal force clearly show that abrasion by disc oxides is the dominant wear mechanism at elevated temperatures. The influence of disc temperature on the operating wear mechanisms as well as the resulting wear are also evaluated. A quantitative classification of four guide roller materials, a high chromium tool steel, two grades of high chromium cast iron and a cermet, has also been made. The hard cermet, containing about 50 vol.% titanium carbides, proved to be the outstanding material in roller guide applications.