Influence of lubrication, tool steel composition, and topography on the high temperature tribological behaviour of aluminium

Abstract

The use of high strength aluminium alloys, such as 6XXX and 7XXX series, is continuously increasing for automotive applications in view of their good strength-to-weight ratio. Their formability at room temperature is limited and they are thus often formed at high temperatures to enable production of complex geometries. Critical challenges during hot forming of aluminium are the occurrence of severe adhesion and material transfer onto the forming tools. This negatively affects the tool life and the quality of the produced parts. In general, the main mechanisms involved in the occurrence of material transfer of aluminium alloys at high temperature are still not clearly understood. Therefore, this study is focussed on understanding of the friction and wear behaviour during interaction of Al6016 alloy and three different tool steels in as-received and polished state. The tribotests were carried out under dry and lubricated conditions, with two distinct lubricants, using a reciprocating friction and wear tester. The worn surfaces were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed a high dependence of friction and wear behaviour on the tool steel roughness as well as on the stability of the lubricant films. Tribolayers were found to develop in the contact zone and their capacity to improve the tribological behaviour is seen to be drastically impacted by the surface roughness of the tool steel. When the tribolayers failed, severe adhesion took place and led to high and unstable friction as well as material transfer to the tool steel.

An Evaluation of the Tribological Behavior of Cutting Fluid Additives on Aluminum-Manganese Alloys

“…The Al-Mn alloy possessed a composition of 1.5 wt.% Mn. AISI 52100 steel bearing balls of 10 mm diameter were used as the counterface and possessed a surface roughness (R a ) of 0.15 µm, to evaluate the tribological behavior of cutting fluid additives [21,22]. The mechanical and thermophysical properties of the AISI 52100 steel and the Al-Mn alloy are displayed in Table 1.…”

A review of advances in tribology in 2020–2021

“…45. Decrozant-Triquenaux et al [803] investigated the behaviour of three different tool steels with different surface topographies during sliding against aluminium under dry and lubricated conditions. The tests were conducted by using tool steel a pin on Al disc contact configuration under reciprocating conditions.…”

High Temperature Dry Tribological Behavior of Nb-Microalloyed Bearing Steel 100Cr6

“…This shows that the wear volume is reduced and the wear resistance is improved by adding Nb at these two temperatures, but this effect is weaker at 125 °C. With the increase of the experimental temperature, the number of abrasive particles caused by adhesive wear and fatigue wear increased [34][35][36], and the oxidation rate increased significantly, and the amount of oxide debris increased sharply [37,38]. Some of With the increase of the experimental temperature, the number of abrasive particles caused by adhesive wear and fatigue wear increased [34][35][36], and the oxidation rate increased significantly, and the amount of oxide debris increased sharply [37,38].…”

“…With the increase of the experimental temperature, the number of abrasive particles caused by adhesive wear and fatigue wear increased [34][35][36], and the oxidation rate increased significantly, and the amount of oxide debris increased sharply [37,38]. Some of With the increase of the experimental temperature, the number of abrasive particles caused by adhesive wear and fatigue wear increased [34][35][36], and the oxidation rate increased significantly, and the amount of oxide debris increased sharply [37,38]. Some of the oxides fall off from the worn surface and are involved in the friction process, and another part of the oxides are crushed into smaller particles.…”

“…The oxide debris aggravates the abrasive wear of Nb-free steel and makes the depth of the worn surface of the three samples tend to be the same. This is one of the reasons why the wear volume of the three samples increased significantly at 125 • C. The wear mechanism mainly included adhesive wear, fatigue wear, abrasive wear, and oxidation wear at 125 • C. With the increase of the experimental temperature, the number of abrasive particles caused by adhesive wear and fatigue wear increased [34][35][36], and the oxidation rate increased significantly, and the amount of oxide debris increased sharply [37,38]. Some of the oxides fall off from the worn surface and are involved in the friction process, and another part of the oxides are crushed into smaller particles.…”