The effect of sample finishing on the tribology of metal/metal lubricated contacts

Friction and wear can be influenced not only by materials, lubricants and running-in, but also by the final manufacturing step employed to prepare the samples. A suitable surface finish for a metallic tribological system can be achieved by cutting procedures such as lapping, honing or grinding. In addition to topography changes, the finishing process also modifies the chemical composition as well as the crystalline structure of the near-surface material. In this contribution the impact of finishing on friction and wear during running-in and the subsequent operation is evaluated for the grinding process. Different grinding parameters and coolant compositions were applied to generate samples for continuous and high-resolution pin-on-disk friction and wear tests. The experiments showed a significant correlation between grinding force, friction coefficient and wear rate.