The effects of retained austenite on dry sliding wear behavior of carburized steels

Ring-on-square tests on two kinds of low-alloy carburized steel which were AISI 8620 and 4140 were carried out to study the dry sliding wear behavior. The influence of different retained austenite level of 6% to 40% was evaluated while trying to eliminate other factors. Test results show that the effects of grain size and carburized steel species are negligible in dry sliding wear behavior. While the influence of retained austenite is negligible at 20 kg load condition, wear resistance is decreased at 40 kg load condition as the retained austenite level is increased from 6% to 30%. However, wear resistance is again increased above about 30% of retained austenite level at 40 kg load condition.