The effect of laser surface texturing on the tribological performance of different Sialon ceramic phases

A tribological performance was carried out on different types of hot press Sialon ceramics regarding the phases, i.e., the α-Sialon phase, the β-Sialon phase, and the α/β-Sialon composite phase. The different phases of Sialon ceramics were analyzed by XRD patterns. For the tribological performance, the Sialon ceramics were laser textured and the starved lubrication method was applied with different dimple pitches under a load of 10 N at room temperature. The material having a dimple pitch of 200 µm shows the lowest coefficient of friction. The α/β-Sialon composite phase shows the least coefficient of friction i.e. 0.04 and 0.1 for the textured and polished (without being textured) samples, respectively. The Sialon ceramics show mild wear and therefore, the wear rate of the steel ball (mating partner) was taken into account for the wear analysis. The α-Sialon phase having a higher hardness shows the least wear in comparison to the α/β-Sialon composite phase and the β-Sialon phase.