Wear Behavior of Bronze vs. 100Cr6 Friction Pairs under Different Lubrication Conditions for Bearing Applications

Abstract

Damage due to a shortage or excess of or the pollution of lubricating oil is often cited as one of the most significant issues confronted by the rolling mill sectors. Lubrication can be provided by either central lubrication systems or individual lubrication systems. In this study, the wear characteristics of the mono-block rolling plain bearing material that is utilized in wire rod rolling mills were evaluated under conditions where the lubricating oil medium included either 2.5% of scale, 5% of scale, or no scale at all. In this experimental study, a unique ball-on-flat experimental setup similar to the one used in the ASTM G133-05 standards was used. Bronze was used as the bearing material and 100Cr6 roller-bearing steel was used as a steel ball of 6 mm in diameter. The experiments were carried out at room temperature, at three different sliding speeds of 5 mm/s, 10 mm/s, and 15 mm/s, and with three different loads of 10 N, 20 N, and 30 N. The wear mechanisms were analyzed visually and elementally using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) methods. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Response Surface Method (RSM) were used to analyze the test results, such as volumetric material loss, the coefficient of friction, and the surface profile. In this study, which was carried out in a lubricant environment containing solid particles, the most effective parameter was the environmental parameter. The increase in the number of solid particles caused an increase in volume loss and friction coefficient.