Friction and wear performance of surface textured bearing steel AISI 52100: a study of texture distribution

To investigate the friction and wear characteristics, the impact of texture and un-texture on tribological performance of AISI 52100 bearing steel and 316 L stainless steel sliding pair was evaluated under lubricated conditions. The square shaped protrusions having texture height of 5 & mu;m and area density 0.1 were fabricated on bearing steel through chemical etching process by varying texture distribution such as radial, uniform and zigzag. The pin on disc sliding tests were conducted at normal loads of 10 N, 20 N and 30 N; and sliding speeds of 0.5 m/s, 1 m/s and 1.5 m/s. The results show that the textured specimen has reduced the friction coefficient and specific wear rate than that of un-textured sample. As for as texture's distribution's concern, zig-zag pattern has the advantageous effect on friction and wear reduction, followed by specimen with uniform pattern and radial pattern. Furthermore, a normal load of 10 N and a sliding speed of 1.5 m/s have exhibited the best influence and enhanced the tribological performance by capturing wear debris and increasing the hydrodynamic effects at the contact. Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) analysis shows that the textured specimen can reasonably reduce the abrasive wear and improve the frictional and wear performance than un-textured specimen.