The friction and wear behaviour of a new developed, pressureless sintered TiB2 ceramic was studied in comparison to SiC against SiC and Al2O3 balls under unlubricated conditions at room temperature. Special attention was paid to the influence of relative humidity on friction and wear results. For both ceramics the coefficient of friction against both ball materials decreases with increasing humidity and is higher in tests against alumina than against SiC. The wear rate is affected significantly by humidity and decreases by one order of magnitude for Al2O3/SiC system and by 2 orders of magnitude for SiC/SiC system. For TiB2 wear rates are nearly not affected by humidity against both ball materials and are much smaller than for SiC.
Tribological characterisation of siliconcarbonitride ceramics derived from preceramic polymers
(2006)
Amorphous SiCN ceramics were prepared in a laboratory scale as disk shaped specimens with 10 mm diameter and 0.3 mm thickness. The friction and wear behaviour was characterised in gross slip fretting tests under unlubricated conditions at room temperature against steel (100Cr6) and ceramic (Al2O3). Tests with a ball-on-disk contact were performed in laboratory air with different content of water vapour. The results show clearly that the relative humidity has a significant effect on friction and wear behaviour. All tests in dry air lead to higher friction and higher wear rate than in normal air. Improved friction and wear behaviour was observed with increasing pyrolysis temperature up to 1100 °C of the SiCN specimens. This is attributed to increasingly better mechanical properties and higher stiffness of the amorphous network due to the evaporation of gaseous organic species and the formation of free graphite like carbon.
Amorphous SiO2 and Si3N4 plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited (PECVD) coatings were deposited on two different substrate materials (fused silica and borosilicate glass), with three coating thicknesses (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 µm). The mechanical properties (hardness and elastic modulus) were determined by depth-sensing indentation, with loads from 700 mN down to 0.1 mN. Tribological behaviour was studied in instrumented oscillating sliding tests at room temperature with a ball-on-flat arrangement, in which the coated disc was tested against an alumina ball, at a load of 1 N. Interpretation of the measurement of hardness and modulus of the coatings has to take into consideration the influence of layer thickness and the effect of the substrate. Tensile film stress and crack generation were only observed for Si3N4 on fused silica above a threshold thickness. Friction and wear measurements show that the coating has an effect on friction, while wear is affected by the thin coatings only for a short running-in phase. The morphology of the wear scars indicates that the coatings have good adhesion. Despite crack generation, delamination effects were not observed. Indentation patterns similarly showed excellent lateral homogeneity of the mechanical properties over the entire film surface, and indicated that load-displacement curves may be used to characterise the system.