An Autoradiographic Investigation of Material Transfer and Wear during High Speed/low Load Sliding

An experimental investigation into material transfer and wear has been performed for the case of a ferrite probe sliding at high speeds (between 25 cm/set and 1250 cm/set) and low loads (10 gm) on a steel disk, a nickel plated disk, and a polymercoated disk, the latter containing finely dispersed abrasive particles. Autoradiographic methods together with microdensitometer analysis have been applied, resulting in detailed information concerning the mechanism of transfer and its relationship with wear. Large amounts of transfer are observed, both for sliding on the steel disk and the nickel plated disk, and also for sliding on the polymer-coated abrasive disk. The latter observation seems to suggest that large amounts of material transfer are characteristic not only for sliding situations favoring adhesive wear, but also for the general case of abrasive wear caused by hard particles dispersed in a soft matrix.