Effect of prior cold rolling on the dry wear performance of GCr15 bearing steel with multiphase microsturcture

In this work, the effect of cold rolling on the wear performance of GCr15 bearing steel with multiphase microstructure has been investigated. The microstructural observation shows that prior cold rolling facilitates to the dissolution of carbides during austenitization. With the increase of cold rolling reduction, the residual austenite content is increased after multiphase heat treatment. The wear results indicate that friction coefficient as well as wear rate distinctly decreases with the increase of rolling reduction. It is also found that the transformation of martensite from residual austenite induced by wear stress increases the surface compressive stress and hardness for the rolled specimens, thereby leading to the enhancement of dry wear resistance.