Sliding Wear Behavior of Friction Couples Primarily Selected for Corrosion Resistance: Iron Boride/Iron Boride and Iron Boride/Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia

Abstract

Wear mitigation in a sliding couple is challenging if wear has to be minimized on both surfaces. In this paper, ball-on-disk testing is performed on sliding couples where both surfaces (ball and disk) are treated for wear resistance. Studied materials are pack borided H13 tool steel (ASTM A681), pack borided AISI 420 stainless steel (ASTM A276) and plasma sprayed yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). Borided H13 steel exhibits a single phase Fe2B layer, while AISI 420 has a double phase layer, with FeB on the outer surface. Both FeB/Fe2B and FeB/YSZ couples generate three-body abrasion. In the latter case, mass transfer occurs from the ball to the disk as well. Friction coefficient is ~0.6 for the AISI 420/Fe2B and FeB/Fe2B sliding pairs, with less vibration on the latter and wear rates close to 10−3 mm³·(N·m)−1 for both the ball and the disk. In comparison, the FeB/YSZ pair has a friction coefficient of ~0.65, a similar total mass loss, but a much higher wear rate for YSZ than for FeB.