Sliding Wear Behavior of Pure Metal, Fe and Cu Having a Cubic Crystal System

Dry sliding wear behavior of pure Fe and Cu which have BCC and FCC crystal structure, respectively, was investigated. The wear characteristics of the pure metals with different crystal structure were compared. Dry sliding wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-disk wear tester at various loads under the constant sliding speed condition of 0.15 m/s against a silica ball at room temperature. Sliding distance was fixed as 600 m for all wear tests. Wear rate of a specimen was calculated by dividing the weight loss of the specimen after the test by the specific gravity and sliding distance. Worn surfaces and wear debris were analyzed by SEM. The wear of both pure Fe and Cu proceeded with surface deformation, resulting in similar wear rates despite of their structure difference under the current test conditions. Wear rates of both metals were low if the surface deformation due to wear forms thick surface-deformation layer that is strain hardened beneath the wearing surface. The pure Cu specimens showed a lot of oxides on the worn surface when tested at low loads less than 5 N, which resulted in very low wear rate.

입방정계 순 금속 Fe, Cu의 미끄럼 마멸 거동