Tribological performance of surface engineered tool steel at elevated temperatures

Tribological components operating at elevated temperatures can experience high wear, oxidation, thermal fatigue and changes in mechanical properties. In this work, the friction and wear characteristics of plasma nitrided and surface coated (CrN and TiAlN) tool steel during sliding against AISI52100 bearing steel have been studied at room temperature and 400 °C respectively using a ball on disc machine. Surface profiler and SEM/EDS techniques were used to characterise the surface topography and resulting surface damage of the test specimens. The results show that the friction of plasma nitrided tool steel during sliding against bearing steel ball is very high at room temperature and it drastically drops at 400 °C. The wear is mainly abrasive at room temperature and adhesive at elevated temperatures. In case of CrN coated tool steel the friction is high but its wear is negligible at room temperature. At 400 °C, the friction decreases marginally and transfer of bearing steel to the coated CrN coated disc has been observed. The TiAlN coating has shown relatively lower friction, compared to CrN and negligible wear at room temperature. At 400 °C, the friction is very high and unstable and transfer of TiAlN coating to the mating ball occurs.