Investigation Of Mechanical Properties And Microstructure Of Steel-Wires

Abstract: Wear and friction are among the major problems faced in several industries such as mining industry. This creates challenges to select better materials with good wear behavior in order to improve the service life of the components. In the present project, three steel wire grades OH 70, OH 75 and OH 101 have been heat treated by quenching and partitioning heat treatment and tested using three wear testing methods. The wear tests performed were a pin-on-disc test, dry-pot test and slurry pot-test, and the results were compared with the conventional quenched and tempered steel. Tensile tests, hardness, impact Charpy tests, scanning electron microscope, optical microscope, X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements were applied to characterize mechanical properties and microstructure of the steels before wear tests. The results showed that the quenched and partitioned steels with considerable amount of retained austenite had higher ductility and good impact toughness than the quenched and tempered steels. After the pin on disc tests, OH 75 grade showed the highest wear resistance, while the lowest wear resistance was obtained by OH 70 grade. The damage mechanisms identified after pin-on-disc were abrasion and oxidative wear. During erosive wear, almost no measurable wear was recorded under the dry pot conditions, while the slurry pot test owned significant wear mass loss. The main modes of the worn surfaces after erosive tests were ploughing and cutting. In addition, cracks were also observed.