Structural determinants maximising wear resistance of friction joints

The paper addresses the issue of maximising resistance of tribological system elements against wear in the conditions of dry friction. A method of virtually multiplying wear resistance of solid bodies, particularly metals, has been found. This effect appears where the temperature of a friction area is equal to the characteristic temperature, and thus markedly different than temperatures applied in typical tribological experiments. Increased wear resistance of a system of bodies is effected by a system transfer of material between surfaces of rubbing bodies and stabilisation of the friction coefficient. Resistance to abrasive wear in conditions of dry friction and oxidational wear was tested in selected frictional systems (specimens from steels C45 and counter-specimens from 145Cr6, in different structural states of the material). In order to identify composition and structure of the friction products and the types of ferrous compounds arising from friction present on the surface of rubbing components, especially secondary oxide structures, Mössbauer spectral analysis was applied. The wear testing required construction of an original test device to measure wear in conditions of formation and regulation of the isothermic limit of temperature variation at a precisely determined distance from a contact of rubbing bodies by means of release (by cooling) or supply (by heating) of heat energy.