The Study of Friction and Wear Behavior for Ceramic against Metal and Metal againstMetal under Oil Lubrication

A series of tests have been carried out for evaluating the friction and wear behavior of ceramic (hot-pressing and pressless sintered Sialon) and metal (52100 steel and chilled cast iron) against metal pairs using an MHK-500 ring-on-block wear test machine and a spring loaded ring-on-block wear test machine under lubrication condition. Tie test results show that not only the friction coeffcient of ceramic against metal pairs is lower than that of metal ring against metal pairs (when load>1000 N), but also the wear resistance of the ceramic block and metal ring for the ceramic against metal pairs is better than that of the metal block and metal ring for the metal against metal pairs; When the surface roughness of the ceramic block is larger, the wear of the metal matched with the ceramic block will be increased.Making a comparison between the hot-press and pressless sintered Sialon, the wear resistance of the hot-press sintered Sialon is better than that of the pressless sintered Sialon. However, the wear of the metal ring matched with the pressless sintered Sialon block is less than that matched with the hot-press sintered Sialon block. The reason can be explained that the hot-press sintered Sialon is more compact than pressless sintered Sialon, its wear resistance is better. The porosity of the pressless sintered sialon may be beneficial to lubrication, the wear of the metal ring surface is decreased. As the hardness of ceramic is very high, the rough asperities of surface can act for abrasive particles and results in the wear of metal ring.