Wear resistance of die steel under conditions of hot sliding friction

The wear resistance of steel is traditionally associated with its hardness. For this reason parts and tools are most often subjected to a heat treatment (hardening). The full cycle of heat treatment including annealing, hardening, and tempering is laborious and is accompanied by various negative phenomena. For example, hardening may give rise to cracks and considerable straining. Machining of hardened steel is complicated by its high hardness, which makes it necessary to conduct a more expensive grinding operation. The present paper is devoted to a comparative analysis of the wear resistance of die steel in different states.