An SEM study of mild-to-severe wear transition in grey cast iron during dry sliding

Journal Article · Tue Apr 14 04:00:00 EDT 1998 · Scripta Materialia

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-6462(98)00085-2· OSTI ID:619502

Lathabai, S ^[1]

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1. CSIRO Manufacturing Science and Technology, Clayton, Victoria (Australia)

The self-lubricating quality of grey cast iron makes it an ideal material for use in industrial applications in which continuous lubrication is difficult or even undesirable. The excellent wear resistance of the material in dry sliding is ascribed to the formation of a graphite film on the surface, derived from the graphite flakes present in its structure. It is now generally recognized that grey cast iron with a pearlitic matrix and ASTM Type A randomly distributed flake graphite of medium size 4/5 gives optimum performance. The rates and mechanisms of wear of grey cast iron in the mild and severe regimes have been studied by many investigators. However, few have examined in detail the processes occurring with increasing sliding distance or time for a specific combination of normal load and sliding velocity. This paper presents the results of such a study. The variation in frictional coefficient with increasing sliding distance was continuously monitored and combined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the associated microstructural changes to provide a further understanding of the mild-to-severe wear transition in grey cast iron.

• OSTI ID: 619502
• Journal Information: Scripta Materialia, Journal Name: Scripta Materialia Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 38; ISSN 1359-6462; ISSN SCMAF7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CAST IRON
MICROSTRUCTURE
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SLIDING FRICTION
WEAR