High temperature three-body abrasive wear of 0.25C 1.42Si steel with carbide free bainitic (CFB) and martensitic microstructures

In the present work, the wear behaviour of different steels has been investigated under a three body abrasive environment at room and elevated temperatures. High-silicon steel (0.25C-1.42Si) was austempered at 300 and 320 °C in order to obtain two carbide-free bainitic steels with different mechanical properties. The same steel subjected to two different quench and temper heat treatments was used as a reference material for mechanical and wear testing. The steels were subjected to three-body abrasive wear by means of a high temperature continuous abrasion tester (HT-CAT). The tests were done at 25, 300 and 500 °C respectively. All samples showed similar wear rates at room temperature. At 500 °C, the material austempered at 320 °C showed the highest toughness and the lowest wear rate. High temperature hardness and impact toughness tests showed that abrasive wear is not only influenced by hardness but also by the toughness of the material. Owing to their good strength/toughness combination CFB steels could prove to be an important material for abrasive wear applications.