Tribological Performance of Heat Treated 0.6% C Steel

Abstract

The present work investigated, the effect of heat treatment on tribological behaviour of 0.6% C steel. Samples were austenitized at 910 ℃ for 1 h in a muffle furnace and then cooling was done at different cooling rate, like furnace cooling (annealing) and air cooling (normalizing). Followed by microstructural characterization was carried out using optical microscopy and XRD analysis. Vickers hardness tester was used to evaluate hardness of the samples. Wear behavior of the as-received and heat treated samples were evaluated by pin on disc wear tester. The microstructure showed that presence of predominantly pearlite grains and less ferrite grains in as received and heat treated sample. Phase analysis showed the ferrite and carbide phase in as received and heat treated sample. Micro-hardness value decreased from 548 HV for as received 0.6% C steel to 256 HV for annealed sample and 412 HV for normalized sample. The more wear resistance of as received sample as compared to annealed and normalized sample. The wear depth was 20 µm for as received, on the other hand, 390 µm for normalized sample and 410 µm for annealed sample. The coefficient of friction of as received sample varies from 0.052 to 0.062, on the other hand, coefficient of friction varies from 0.052 to 0.062 for normalized sample and 0.062 to 0.073 for annealed sample.