FRICTION AND WEAR RESPONSE OF TiB2-B4C CERAMICS

Abstract

Rotating sliding wear experiments on TiB2-B4C have been conducted at room temperature (25 °C) in dry conditions according to the ASTMG99-95a standard. SiC balls were used as static counterpart. The disk specimens were surface finished by polishing. The tests were performed using different rotating sliding speeds from 0.1 up to 1.5 m/s with a mean Hertzian contact pressure of 1.2 GPa. Balls and disk specimens were analyzed by 2-D and 3-D surface topography, SEM and optical microscopy. The experimental results demonstrated that the sliding velocity influences both friction coefficient and wear rate values of TiB2-B4C ceramics. It was shown, that the wear rate varied between 3.64E-7 to 8.43E-7 mm3/Nm. Wear mechanisms such as polishing, abrasion and wear debris formation have been identified by means of SEM and EDX technique.