Friction and wear behaviours of surface densified powder metallurgy Fe–2Cu–0.6C material

Abstract

Surface rolling was employed to fabricate a densified layer on a powder metallurgy (PM) Fe–2Cu–0.6C piece. A densified surface layer with a depth of 335 μm and a surface hardness of 330 HV_0.1 was obtained, in which the lamellar spacing of pearlite and grain size of ferrite were refined. Friction and wear behaviours of the surface densified material were studied. Results indicated that friction coefficient of the rolled material decreased as the load increased, which was lower than that of the un-rolled material. Wear volumes were lower than that of the un-rolled material, which increased as the load increased. Wear loss was caused by flake spalling and grooves, and the wear mechanism mainly was abrasive wear. The surface densified layer with higher hardness and lower porosity can hinder the cracks initiation and propagation on the surface and under the surface, which enhance the wear resistance of the PM material.

Keywords:

• Surface densification
• Powder metallurgy
• Fe–2Cu–0.6C
• Friction
• Abrasive wear

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51274103) and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 2015A030312003, 2015B020238008, 2014B010129003).