Tribological performance of SiC and TiB2 against SiC and Al2O3 at low sliding speeds

The friction and wear behaviour of a new developed, pressureless sintered TiB2 ceramic was studied in comparison to SiC against SiC and Al2O3 balls under unlubricated conditions at room temperature. Special attention was paid to the influence of relative humidity on friction and wear results. For both ceramics the coefficient of friction against both ball materials decreases with increasing humidity and is higher in tests against alumina than against SiC. The wear rate is affected significantly by humidity and decreases by one order of magnitude for Al2O3/SiC system and by 2 orders of magnitude for SiC/SiC system. For TiB2 wear rates are nearly not affected by humidity against both ball materials and are much smaller than for SiC.