Effect of Carbon on Wear Resistance in Self-lubricating Fe-Cr-C-Mn-Cu Alloys

Abstract

Recently, because of safety and environmental concerns, there has been a tendency to introduce solid self-lubricating composites for bearing materials. In this paper, we developed Fe-Cr-C-Mn-Cu cast composite alloys as a self-lubricating composite and investigated the effect of carbon on the formation of protective tribofilms during sliding. The wear resistance of these materials was mainly affected by carbon concentrations due to the fact that in particular wear passed from delamination to tribo-oxidation, reducing the wear rate. The improved wear resistance likely resulted from protective tribofilms that formed on the surface during sliding.