Sliding wear of ceramics and cermets against steel

The wear resistance of ceramics and ceramic/metal hybrid composites against steel was studied under dry sliding condition by the use of a pin-on-disc type wear test. The results were compared not only on the basis of the specific wear rates of the various ceramic based materials, but also on the basis of the total cumulative wear rates, which show accumulated wear losses of both sample material as a sliding body and its steel counterpart. From this point of view, it can be considered whether the tribo-materials are optimised with regard to the whole tribo-system or not. The specific wear rates of metal and ceramic/metal composites showed roughly 1.7–16 times higher values than the monolithic ceramics. But the total cumulative wear rate of the ceramic/metal composite, which contained larger sized metal particles, exhibited more than twice better total wear performance than the other systems. The mechanisms responsible for these behaviours were discussed by means of microscopical observations on the worn surfaces and the microstructures of the samples.