Investigation of the adhesion and wear properties of borided AISI H10 steel

Abstract

In the present study the effect of the boriding process on the adhesion and wear properties of AISI H10 steel has been investigated. The boride layer was characterized by light microscopy, X-ray diffraction and the Vickers microhardness. The X-ray diffraction analyses of the boride layers on the surface of the steels revealed the existence of the compounds FeB, Fe2B, CrB, Cr2B and MoB. Depending on the chemical composition of the steel, the boride-layer thickness on the surface of the AISI H10 steel was found to be 63.72 μm. The hardness of the boride compounds formed on the surface of the steels ranged from 1648 to 1964 HV0.05, whereas the Vickers hardness value of the untreated steel was 306 HV0.05. The wear tests were carried out in a ball-on-disc arrangement under dry-friction conditions at room temperature with an applied load of 10 N and with a sliding speed of 0.3 m s-1 for a sliding distance of 1000 m. It was observed that the wear rate of the borided and non-borided AISI H10 steels ranged from 3.15 mm3/N m to 62.84 mm3/N m.