Wear behaviour of Al2O3-TiCN composite ceramic sliding against pure Al, Fe and stainless steel

The sliding wear tests were carried out under dry friction conditions at ambient temperature on a block-on-ring tribometer in order to simulate the real cutting practice of ceramic cutting tools. The investigated materials include a composite ceramic Al2O3-TiCN, Al, Fe and a stainless steel (AISI 302), which were combined into three ceramic/metal sliding pairs. The test results indicate that the wear of the three metals was much higher than that of the ceramic and Al showed the highest wear rate among them. The wear scars and wear debris were examined by a scanning electron microscope with an energy-@close@ dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyser. The results showed that the metals were easily transferred on to the ceramic surface in the rubbing process, and the ceramic microfracture fragments were also embedded into metal surfaces. The wear mechanisms of both the ceramic and the metals are discussed in detail. 11 refs.