Wear of plowshare components in SAE 950C steel surface hardened by powder boriding

The wear of single-phase Fe2B boride coatings grown on steel plowshares was investigated by means of experiments carried out both in laboratory and in field on real-size components. In the laboratory tests, a comparison was made between the resistance to abrasive wear of specimens of SAE 950C steel untreated, carburised and borided at 950 °C for 2, 4 and 6 h. The tests were carried out using abrasive papers covered with particles of aluminium oxide and silicon carbide. The boriding conditions giving rise to the lowest wear weight loss against the abrasive papers were selected in order to surface harden plowshare components to be tested in field both in autumn and spring months. The borided plowshares underwent a negligible in-field wear, as compared to commercially available components. Almost no remarkable difference was observed between the values of resistance to in-field wear displayed by borided plowshares and carburised, commercially available components.