Investigations of High Temperature Wear Mechanisms for Tool Steel Under Open-Sliding Contact

During hot working processes, working tools are subjected to severe conditions. Wear is one of the major life limiting factors of the hot working tools. The identification and understanding of the wear mechanism are extremely important for solving problems related to the hot working process. The ultimate aim of this paper is to assess some wear mechanisms of the tool steel used in hot drawing. The tribological tests were performed on high temperature pin-on-disc tribometer with an open-sliding contact for a simulation of hot-drawing process with a refreshed contact surface. The pin material was X40 CrMoV5 steel and the disc material was Fe 360B steel. Experiments were carried out for different disc temperatures ranging from room temperature to 800°C, a constant sliding speed of 50 rev/min and a constant normal load of 70 N. The evolution surface damage and oxides tribolayers have been investigated by SEM and EDS. The results have shown that an increase in test temperature facilitates the generation of oxide and assists in the compaction of the debris, thus producing a wear protective layer, and therefore, a reduction in friction coefficient.