Experimental investigations of surface wear by dry sliding and induced damage of medium carbon steel

This study concerns the wear behaviour of metal couples used in industry, particularly in mechanical sliding systems (numerically controlled machine tools). In general, the nature of the materials of the parts of these systems which are in contact and move relatively, are medium carbon steels, thanks to their good mechanical and tribological properties. The present work aims to study, the dry sliding wear of the contact surface of the pin (machine slide) against the contact surface of a disc (machine groove) and the damage induced on the worn track. The pin is AISI 1038 and AISI 1045 steel, the disc is AISI 1055 steel. The tribological tests were carried out on a pin-disc tribometer, in an atmospheric environment. The wear of the pins being evaluated by weighing and studied according to the hardness of the pin with the variation of the normal load applied. The discussion of the results is based on SEM observations and EDS analyzes of worn surfaces and interfacial phenomena produced by dynamic contact. The results obtained indicated the influence of the applied load and the hardness on the wear of the pin and therefore on the tribological behaviour of the worn surfaces.