Effect of Spot Continual Induction Hardening on the Tribological Performance of Grey Cast Iron with Curved Surface

ABSTRACT

In order to investigate the effect of a spot continual induction hardening (SCIH) process on the tribological performance of grey cast iron with a curved surface, dry sliding wear tests were performed under different loads. The curved surface structure of the workpiece and feed velocity of the inductor were considered important influence factors. X-ray diffractometry (XRD), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the phases, compositions, and morphologies of grey cast iron after the SCIH process and tribological tests. The results showed that the wear mechanism of grey cast iron was always adhesive and abrasive wear at different loads when the workpiece was not strengthened. In the case of partial strengthening, the wear mechanism changed from adhesive and abrasive wear to fatigue–exfoliative wear with increasing load. Oxidative wear always appeared as the dominant wear mechanism when the workpiece was completely strengthened. The wear resistance of the concave surface was always larger than that of the convex surface under the same feed velocity of the inductor. Relatively low feed velocity of the inductor in the SCIH process can optimize the wear resistance of grey cast iron with a curved surface.

KEYWORDS:

• Spot continual induction hardening
• curved surface
• feed velocity
• tribological performance
• grey cast iron

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the staff at the Hubei Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Automotive Components and Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Automotive Components Technology for supporting this work.

Funding

Financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51175392 and No. 51575415) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province of China (No. 2016CFA077) is gratefully acknowledged.