Tribological investigation of commercially sintered steels under dry sliding conditions against austenitic steel

In this study the wear and friction of uncoated sintered steels, their relationship with microstructure and toughness when tested against austenitic steel were investigated. The metallographic investigation and the quantitative testing are interrelated in such a way that one can explain the other, and together they explain the wear behaviour of the sintered parts. The paper identifies the main wear mechanisms in this particular type of testing for the investigated materials. For the same materials, the paper also proves in quantitative terms (for the first time) the correlation between material fracture toughness and its wear bebaviour-a correlation demonstrated before for other materials by theoretical studies.