Wear Behaviour of Additive Manufactured Aluminium Alloy ER 5356

Abstract

In the automotive industry, parts are mostly made from aluminium alloy due to its lightweight properties and high corrosion resistance. However, the drawback is that the aluminium alloy is easily worn due to wear and friction and will end up in the scrap yard. In order to salvage the aluminium component, the worn part can be repaired. Currently, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) offers flexible remanufacturing of the worn part. However, the wear behaviour of the additively manufactured part needs to be studied first to improve the wear performance of the material. In this study, the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) or MIG-based WAAM machine was utilised to produce a 3D profile from the available aluminium alloy wire grade ER 5356. The wear test was carried out in accordance with ASTM G-99, using a pin-on disc in both dry and wet sliding conditions. It was found that on dry sliding, the specific wear rates are decreasing from 5.3632 x 10-11 mm3/Nm to 4.3496 x 10-11 mm3/Nm and 4.1513 x 10-11 mm3/Nm as the speed increases from 200 to 400 RPM at the constant 20 N load. Meanwhile, for wet sliding, it has been observed that the specific wear rate increases as similar speed values are used in dry sliding conditions, which are 6.8122 x 10-12 mm3/Nm, 1.1931 x 10-11 mm3/Nm and 3.7561 x 10-11 mm3/Nm with a similar constant 20 N load. Next, the coefficient of friction for dry sliding shows that as the speed decreases. In contrast, for wet sliding, it is observed that the coefficient of friction increases.