Determination of the wear resistance of 1020 steel superficially treated in contact with 3104 aluminum alloy using the microwear test compared to the designed wear test evaluated by the moiré optical technique

Abstract

The AA 3104 aluminum alloy is widely used as packaging for food storage. However, the package fabrication causes wear to the cutting knife and stamping tools. The objective of this work was to evaluate the wear resistance of the 1020 steel applied in tools for molding and cutting operations of AA 3104, with and without surface treatment, comparing two techniques of wear tests. The samples of 1020 steel were treated by plasma nitriding and DLC film deposition. All samples were tested by a microwear test by fixed ball (MWT). Also, a prototype of the tools machine was developed to simulate the wear between 1020 steel against AA 3104 that occurs in service, whose wear result was analyzed by the moiré optical technique by phase-shifting (DWT). It was observed that the treated samples increased the wear resistance compared to the base material (BM), indicating an increase in the cutting tool lifetime. The DLC film treatment presented greater wear resistance than the nitriding treatment. The microwear test presented the wear volume behavior similar to the behavior of the prototype of wear test, showing that the MWT can be used to study the wear phenomenon with good relationship with the practice, the DWT can indicate the wear behavior of the material in service and the moiré technique can be efficiently used to determine a wear behavior in the designed wear test.