Effect of Counterface Material on Tribological Behavior of AISI 304L Stainless Steel Under Marginally Lubricated Contact

The properties of surfaces in contact are known to have significant influence on the tribological behavior of any  tribosystem in different contact situations. In the present work, the effect of using different ball counterface material on  the tribological behavior of AISI 340L stainless steel under marginally lubricated contact was studied. The frictional  behavior was evaluated using a ball-on-flat configuration in reciprocating sliding under marginally lubricated contact  condition. 440C stainless steel, Al (2017) alloy and bronze were used as the ball counterface while base-stock synthetic  polyalfaolefin oil (PAO10) without additives was used as lubricant. After the friction test, flats and balls surfaces were  examined by optical profilometer and optical microscope in order to assess the wear dimension and mechanism. In all the  sliding pairs tested at different loads, an initial rapid increase in friction coefficient and a period of transition to a lower  steady state friction coefficient were observed. In SS304L-440C pair, wear proportional to applied load occurred in the  AISI 340L stainless steel flat by a combination of gross plasticity and abrasion. For both SS304L-Al (2017) and SS304L bronze pairs, severe wear proportional to applied load, which occurred predominantly by abrasive mechanism was  observed in the different ball counterface. The study concluded that the types of materials in contact have significant  influence on the tribological property of any tribosystem.