Sliding wear behavior of niobium carbide coated AISI 1040 steel

In the present study, the wear and friction behavior of AISI 52100 steel and alumina against niobium carbide coated AISI 1040 steel disk was studied using ball-on-disk arrangement. Niobium carbide coating treatment was performed on AISI 1040 steels using thermo-reactive diffusion techniques. The presence of NbC phase in the coating layer was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Friction and wear tests were carried out at dry test conditions under 2.5, 5 and 10 N loads at 0.1 m/s sliding speed. The results showed that the friction coefficient values are 0.4–0.68 for AISI 52100 steel and 0.4–0.55 for alumina ball, respectively. The specific wear rate of AISI 52100 steel is ranging between 5.66 × 10−6 and 3.79 × 10−5 mm3/N m. For alumina, it ranges between 3.03 × 10−8 and 6.36 × 10−7 mm3/N m. In case of alumina running against niobium carbide coated disk, the wear rate obtained from wear tracks on the disk is ranging between 1.44 × 10−6 and 7.55 × 10−6 mm3/N m. In general, the coefficient of friction and wear rate increased with the increase in load value.