Investigation of Adhesion and Tribological Behavior of Borided AISI 310 Stainless Steel

Abstract

In the present study, the effects of the boriding process on adhesion and tribological properties of AISI 310 steel were investigated. Boriding was performed in a solid medium consisting of Ekabor-II powders at 1123 and 1323K for 2 and 6 h. The boride layer was characterized by optical microscopy, the X-ray diffraction technique and the micro-Vickers hardness tester. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the boride layers on the surface of the steels revealed the existence of FexBy, CrxBy and NixBy compounds. Depending on the chemical composition of substrates, the boride layer thickness on the surface of the AISI 310 steel was found to be 56.74 μm. The hardness of the boride compounds formed on the surface of the AISI 310 steel ranged from 1658 to 2284 HV0,1, whereas the Vickers hardness value of the untreated steel AISI 310 was 276 HV0,1. The wear tests were carried out in a ball-disc arrangement under a dry friction condition at room temperature with an applied load of 10N and with a sliding speed of 0.3 m/s, at a sliding distance of 1000m. The wear surfaces of the steel were analyzed using an SEM microscopy and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy EDS. It was observed that the wear rate of unborided and borided AISI 310 steel ranged from 4.57 to 71.42 mm 3 /Nm.Keywords: AISI 310, Boriding, Micro-Hardness, Adhesion, Tribology. INTRODUÇÃOBoriding is a thermochemical surface hardening process which occurs with the diffusion of boron atoms on the matrix surface. The introduced boron atoms react with the material and form a number of borides. As a result of these formations, boronizing of the surface of a material allows a significant reduction of the rate of corrosion, oxidation or shaping of fatigue cracks that occur as an outcome of its operation [1][2][3][4]. But the main advantage of boronizing metals is the possibility to alloy a high surface hardness with a low friction coefficient. This may lead to good wear resistance. The increase in hardness due to boronizing of steels resulted in decreased wear rates in [5].The wear and friction behaviors of borided steels are broadly dependent on the following surface and boriding conditions: boriding time and temperature, chemical composition, mechanical properties, physical structure, lubricant, surface roughness, etc. As result of these conditions, the life of machine components may be affected. The efficiency, durability and reliability are improved by reducing friction and wear rate via certain materials, surface modifications and lubricants [6][7][8].The need to overcome wear is an old and well recognized problem that presents a unique challenge to the designer and the developer of steel components for many engineering applications, for example in crushing mills, sieves, shaft pins, skip hoist elements, conveyors, blades, gear and sprocket wheels, self-dumping cars elements, loading machines, trucks, front casting bulldozers, buckets and worm transporters. The borided steel surfaces with a high hardness have outstanding wear resistance. Therefore, boriding ...

Effect of pack-boriding on the tribological behavior of Hardox 450 and HiTuf Steels

“…It has a column-shaped crystal structure positioned in the direction of diffusion in both layers [20]. Boriding process has been shown to have outstanding tribological properties compared to carburized and nitrided steel as a surface hardening method in the industry [21][22][23][24][25][26]. Boronized iron and steel surfaces are of high hardness, excellent wear, good corrosion, and strong chemical stability [27,28].…”

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Borided Inconel 625 Superalloy

“…Many of studies have been reported that the mechanical properties of the material has a significant effect on the type of wear [11,15,[17][18][19]. SEM view of the sample with hardness 1204, 1666 and 2432 HV 0.1 and worn under three different load presented in Figure 6, Figure 7 and Figure 8, respectively.…”

“…Eventually this give rise to increases in volume loss. On the other hand, the hardness of the samples also have a great effect on the wear resistance of the samples [11,15,[17][18][19]. As the best wear resistance was obtained in the highest hardness samples and wear resistance decreased in accordance with decrease in hardness (Figure 4).…”

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