Study of wear characteristics under conditions of dry sliding friction of 08Kh18N10T steel after electrolysis-free boriding

Abstract

Effect of liquid electrolysis-free boriding on tribotechnical characteristics of 08Kh18N10Т steel is studied. It is established that after boriding at temperature 900 °С and 5 h soaking it is formed a boride two-phase layer with thickness of 30...35 microns and transition zone with thickness of 10 microns. The microhardness in FeB and Fe2B phases is 2000...2100 and 1800...1900 HV 0.1 respectively. The wear tests under dry friction conditions showed that coefficient of friction for specimens made of 08Kh18N10Т steel without treatment and with boriding in pair with counterbody made of ShKh15 steel is 0.83 and 0.85 respectively. At the same time, the wear intensity of samples with boration is an order of magnitude less than that of samples without treatment, and on average is 7.7 · 10–6 mm3 /(H · m) instead of 8.5 · 10–5 mm3 /(H · m). The average depth of the wear track of the sample with boriding is 5 times less than that of the sample without treatment.