Dry sliding wear behaviour of pure Aluminium and Al-Cu alloys

Abstract

Pure aluminium and aluminium - copper binary alloys (2%, 4%, and 6% by weight) were melted and cast in a permanent cast iron mould in the form of 12 mm φ fingers. Standard samples were machined with 10 mm φ and 30 mm length after giving homogenization treatment (300 °C for 24 h). Dry sliding wear behaviour of pure aluminium and these alloys has been investigated using a pin-on-disc wear tester at a fixed sliding speed of 1.0 m/s with parameters of track distance and load range of4.9 N to 14.7 N. The counter face was chosen so as to minimize the chemically driven aspects of adhesive wear. Wear behaviour, friction coefficient, hardness, macro and microstructures results revealed that, severe wear was observed at all loads for all alloys under investigation. It was also observed that the wear rate of the alloys decreased with increasing copper content.