Fretting Wear Resistance Research Articles

The effect of quench hardening on the fretting wear of medium carbon steel

The fretting behaviour of medium carbon steel in two heat treatment states, hardened and hot rolled, has been studied under various loads in laboratory air. The temperature rise at the fretting contact surface was measured with a thermocouple at the interface. The results show that the wear loss of each material increases linearly with the number of cycles and that the wear rate falls after prolonged running times. The difference in fretting wear resistance of the two heat treatment states is large. The temperature rises at the fretting interface increase with increasing motion frequency, amplitude and load but the trends are different for the two materials. The recorded contact temperature of hardened steel starts to rise at low values of frequency, amplitude and load while the temperature for hot-rolled steel does not rise appreciably until the mechanical parameters reach a certain value, above which the contact temperature begins to rise rapidly and eventually exceeds that for hardened steel. The fretting scars and debris were examined and analysed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and inert gas fusion oxygen determination using an impulse furnace and an IR detector. The results obtained are discussed.

Fretting wear of nitrogen-implanted AISI 304 stainless steel

Fretting wear resistance of nitrogen-implanted AISI 304 stainless steel was measured and compared to that of unimplanted steel. After 5 × 10 3 cycles, unimplanted steel revealed severe damage on non-slip area and adhesive-type wear on microslip region whereas nitrogen-implanted stainless steel was still undamaged. The improved fretting wear resistance is explained to be due to the increased load carrying capacity and decreased adhesion of nitrogen-implanted steel.