Wear characteristics of cold tool steels for recycling plastic preprocessing

Eight type of commercial cold work tool steels were heat treated to achieve the equal hardness of 650 HV. Heat-treated samples were investigated by optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), microhardness, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify microstructural features and phases. The samples were examined in three distinct wear modes: adhesion, two-body wear using pin wear on SiC, and recycling plastic cutting machine, respectively. The wear surfaces of samples were analyzed by 3D scanning technology. The microstructure of steels determined their wear characteristics. For low sliding and higher cutting speeds, the order of adhesive wear performance of the steels was reversed due to the stress occurring in the cutting line. The wear rate of all samples was commensurate with load. In the recycling plastic cutting process, the sample with the minimum and homogeneously dispersed carbides exhibited the best wear performance. Tempering the S3 sample prevented crack formation and improved fracture toughness.