Three body abrasion wear of low carbon steel modified surfaces

It is shown that the wear rate of all coatings increases linearly with the applied load, according to the Archard law. However, above a certain load the wear rate of the coating belonging with the Fe-B system catastrophically increases, mainly due to its brittleness associated to the presence of FeB type borides. The wear rate of the other three coatings diminishes above a critical load, because the silica sand abradant suffers from blunting, under the action of high pressures against the very hard particles of the coatings. The wear mechanisms revealed through extensive metallographic investigation show that although the hardness is a very crucial parameter, other factors, like the brittleness of the material, the microstructure and eventually phase transformations induced during the wear test may change the wear behaviour of the coatings, reversing the ranking anticipated if one was based on their hardness.