Non-lubricated dry sliding wear behavior of spark plasma sintered nano-structured stainless steel

In the present paper we reported the non-lubricated sliding wear behavior of duplex and ferritic stainless steel against a diamond indenter. The ball milled nano-structured stainless steel powders were consolidated by spark plasma sintering technique at 1050˚C. It has been found that spark plasma sintering (SPS) enhances the density, hardness and wear resistance of both the stainless steels. Maximum sintered density and Vickers microhardness is reported for duplex stainless steel than ferritic stainless steel. The wear studies of both the stainless steel were carried out using a pin-on-disc apparatus at 40 and 60 N against a diamond indenter. The wear mechanisms were found to be mainly abrasive and oxidative with mainly ploughing and plastic deformation modes. Semi-quantitative analysis of the worn out surfaces and wear debris were carried out using EDS to confirm the occurrence of oxidation processes during wear. The spark plasma sintered duplex stainless steel was found to exhibit maximum hardness and wear resistance than the spark plasma sintered ferritic stainless steel