Tribological Behaviour of Surface Coatings for Hot Forming Die Steels

Abstract

Die surface wear is a critical problem observed in the hot metal forming industry and is producing an adverse effect on the process economy and product quality. The high contact pressure and relative sliding occur when the tool and workpiece interact at higher temperatures. This leads to severe wear on the die surface and in the near-surface region of dies. Ultimately, it results in die failures. To date, the research related to the tribological behaviour of dies at high temperatures is still lacking. To reduce the wear and friction of dies, it is vital to increase the hot hardness of the die materials, and further, surface engineering of the die surface plays a very important role in reducing the wear. This chapter describes the high-temperature tribology, the tribological aspects of hot forming operations, and the preventive measures. Further, the tribological (wear and friction) studies of various thermal spray coated die steels are reported. The investigation concluded that the selected surface coatings were found to be most effective and offered the best solutions to the high-temperature wear of the hot forming die steels.