Tribological Behavior of Borided AISI 316L Steel with Reduced Friction Coefficient and Enhanced Wear Resistance

Abstract

This study evaluates the tribological behavior of borided AISI 316L steel. The treatment time was set to 2, 4, and 6 h at temperatures of 850, 900, and 950°C for each time duration. The morphology and microstructure of the boride layers were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The mechanical properties were evaluated by an instrumented nanoindentation test. The tribological behaviors of the layers were evaluated using a sand/rubber apparatus following the ASTM G-65 standard. The friction coefficient of the boride layers was estimated by means of the tribological pin-on-disk test. The results show that the experimental parameters had a clear influence on the thickness of the boride layers and on their mechanical properties. The volume loss was established in the range of 0.0741 ± 0.011 µg to 1.6148 ± 0.150 µg. Wear mechanisms such as adhesion and micro-fatigue were mainly observed in the samples exposed for 6 h at 950°C. Finally, the friction coefficient was reduced from 0.7 for the as-received material down to 0.29 for the borided samples. The wear mechanisms were discussed as a function of the scanning electron microscopy observations. It is possible to conclude that single-phase layers of Fe2B are more apt to face wear than the FeB/Fe2B biphasic layers.