Pin-on-Disk Wear Investigation on Bronze Coating – Part 2: Analysis of the Experimental Results

This study expands the research described in Part 1 with additional tests and an in-depth analysis of the results. The contact between bearing steel balls and the flat surface of bronze-coated disks is investigated with velocity set at 0.1 m/s, normal load of 10 N and sliding distances of 1 km and 500 m. Wear volume, constant and depth are deeply analyzed by using the experimental data and measurements and by comparing them with analytical estimations. Results confirm the influence of the initial surface condition and of the radius of the track found in Part 1. In particular, the presence of an oxide layer has a great impact on bronze-coated parts providing unpredictable run-in phases that are nearly eliminated when it is removed through surface grinding. The track radius employed for the experiments seems to have negligible impact on the wear constant.