Dry sliding wear behaviour of steel (AISI 1078) after coating with steam treatment and manganese phosphating

ABSTRACT Coating on a connecting rod of steel (AISI 1078) may be used to reduce the friction and improve the wear resistance to enhance the durability. In this study, the tribological behaviour of uncoated, steam-coated and manganese phosphate-coated steel (AISI 1078) specimens was investigated. Wear tests were carried out by using a pin on disc apparatus operating at a constant velocity of 1.6 m/s under the normal load from 9.8 to 49 N at room temperature. Increment in wear rate was observed by increasing the applied load. However, steam-coated specimen shows better wear resistance than all other specimens at both low and high loads. For a better understanding of the involved wear mechanism, worn surfaces and collected debris were analysed under a scanning electron microscope, which point out that both adhesive and abrasive mechanism were involved during wear testing of specimens. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT