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In a hot strip mill, the contact established between the hot strip and the work rolls in the first times of running has to be oxide on oxide to allow the strip to be pulled in the roll bite. The oxide scale formed on the roll is submitted to thermo-mechanical stresses and grows up. From a critical thickness, the scale spalls and causes some superficial damage to the rolls and to the strip.For the roll manufacturers as well as for the steel makers, it is essential to understand the influence of the creation and the growth of such a scale on friction in order to control the antagonist superficial damage and consequently to reduce the running cost of the mill.The present work aims to study the interaction between the oxides formed on a work roll grade and the coefficient of friction established with a strip steel usually rolled by this roll grade. A high temperature tribometer was set up in a pin-on-disc configuration. A previous part of study showed that friction was dependent on the nature of antagonist materials and the thermal transfer. We observed the establishment of a running-in period in the case of a metal-on-oxide initial contact between the pin and the disc which corresponds to the creation of an oxide layer on the pin.The mechanisms that allowed the formation of this scale were determined. SEM observations in conjunction with EDS analysis, both inside and outside the contact area on both antagonists, led to the development of a phenomenological model explaining the creation and the movement of oxide debris in the contact.

Improvement of hot rolling process involves the lengthening of rolling campaigns. This can be achieved through the wear resistance improvement of work roll grades. The wear damage observed in service on the hot working rolls is the result of a complex interaction between oxidation, friction and thermal fatigue. An approach is to assess the coupled effect of oxidation and friction on the overall tribological behaviour at high temperature. A first step consists in a good knowledge of the material behaviour against each stress. Tribological behaviour of roll grades at high temperature is indeed strongly affected by the nature, the thickness and the thermo-mechanical properties of their oxide scales involved into the contact. All these parameters depend on roll grade microstructure. An experimental methodology has also been performed to assess the influence of the roll grade microstructure on their tribological behaviour at high temperature. It constitutes the subject of the present paper. Results have focussed on high temperature friction tests and on the analysis of oxide morphologies (through TGA tests and environmental SEM, ESEM, observations). Nevertheless this approach does not aim to reproduce strictly rolling conditions, but only to analyse the chemical and mechanical response of roll grades regarding thermal and mechanical stresses involved in hot rolling. Material investigations have shown heterogeneous oxidation according to the different microstructural states and the environmental testing conditions. A particular scale roughness, depending on grades and oxidation conditions, and influencing the tribological behaviour, has been brought out.

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