Investigation of Adhesion and Tribological Behavior of Borided AISI 310 Stainless Steel

Abstract

In the present study, the effects of the boriding process on adhesion and tribological properties of AISI 310
steel were investigated. Boriding was performed in a solid medium consisting of Ekabor-II powders at 1123
and 1323K for 2 and 6 h. The boride layer was characterized by optical microscopy, the X-ray diffraction
technique and the micro-Vickers hardness tester. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the boride layers on the
surface of the steels revealed the existence of FexBy, CrxBy and NixBy compounds. Depending on the chemical
composition of substrates, the boride layer thickness on the surface of the AISI 310 steel was found to be
56.74 μm. The hardness of the boride compounds formed on the surface of the AISI 310 steel ranged from
1658 to 2284 HV0,1, whereas the Vickers hardness value of the untreated steel AISI 310 was 276 HV0,1. The
wear tests were carried out in a ball-disc arrangement under a dry friction condition at room temperature with
an applied load of 10N and with a sliding speed of 0.3 m/s, at a sliding distance of 1000m. The wear surfaces
of the steel were analyzed using an SEM microscopy and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy EDS. It was
observed that the wear rate of unborided and borided AISI 310 steel ranged from 4.57 to 71.42 mm3/Nm.