Tribological Behavior of Boundary Lubricated Sliding Surfaces Using Three Different Spacing of Surface Profiles

The ball-on-disk type sliding tests with boundary lubricated steels were carried out to verify the effect of initial spacing in surface profiles on wear and scuffing. Three kinds of surface spacing, which are closely related with initial surface micro-cracks on sliding surfaces, were produced on AISI 1045 steel surfaces using different grinding and polishing processes. Frictional forces and time to scuffing were measured, and the shape and amount of wear particles were analyzed to compare the with original surface profiles. From the tests, it was confirmed that the size of wear particles are related closely to the original spacing of the surface profile. The time to failure and amount of wear were sensitive to the surface spacing. The wider surface spacing shows much longer sliding life and smaller amount of wear than the others. Time to scuffing was increased with increasing surface pro(lie spacing. The size of wear particles increased while the wear and wear rate K were decreased with an increase in surface spacing. After the sliding tests, surface cracks of inner parts of the wear track formed due to scuffing were observed and compared among the specimens having the different surface spacing.