The effect of ceramic tribo-elements on friction and wear of smooth steel surfaces

Abstract

The pin-on-disc dry sliding friction and wear experiments have been made on 42CrMo4 steel in contact with Si3N4, SiC, WC, Al2O3, and ZrO2 ceramic balls. The tests were carried out at sliding speeds of 0.16 m/s, 0.24 m/s, and 0.32 m/s. During the tests, the friction force was monitored as a function of time. Discs and balls wear was measured after the tests using a white light interferometer Talysurf CCI Lite and Altisurf 520 optical profilometer with a CL1 confocal probe. To decrease variations in the experimental results, during the tests, wear debris was continuously removed from the disc surfaces. It was found out that with Al2O3 counterpart the wear volume of the steel discs was the largest. However, the largest wear volume of the balls was observed for Si3N4 ceramic balls.