Sliding wear of low carbon steel modified by double-glow plasma surface alloying with nickel and chromium at various temperatures

This paper was directed at improving the wear resistance of low carbon steel by double-glow plasma surface alloying (DPSA) technology. A Ni–Cr alloyed layer was successfully formed on the low carbon steel by the DPSA treatments. The microstructure, elements distribution, phase identification and micro-hardness were analyzed by SEM/EDS, XRD and nano-indentation. Detailed tribological characterization was carried out by using a ball-on-disc tribometer at room temperature and at 450 °C. The results indicate that while the alloyed specimen at room temperature is dominated by oxidative wear, the predominant mechanism of high temperature wear is oxidative wear and fatigue delamination, which alternately occur to make the wear rate extensively increase compared to the room temperature test during the wear processes. The wear rate of low carbon steel at both room temperature and high temperature can be reduced by 88% and 60%, respectively.