Jämförelse av prestandan gällande nötning för ytbehandlingarna elektropläterad krom och autokatalytisk nickel vid hög temperatur

This thesis was written for a Swedish valve manufacturer to find out in what temperature regimes it was possible to replace electroplated hard chromium with autocatalytic electroless nickel-phosphorus. In this work the dry sliding wear properties of electroplated hard chromium and autocatalytic electroless nickel-phosphorus(10% P) were compared. All tests and investigations were done by using available equipment at Karlstads University. The tests were made to find out how the wear of these coatings behaved at different temperatures, how different substrates influence the wear of these coatings and how the roughness of the substrate surface influence the wear properties of these coatings. The method used for the wear tests was block-on-ring with a counterformal contact mode. The tests were executed in room temperature, 300C and 400C; with a normal load of 100N, sliding speed was 150rpm and duration of the tests were 15 minutes. All tests were done in an argon gas atmosphere. The coatings was deposited onto the cylinders with a thickness of 30µm. The different substrates used were an austenitic stainless steel(1.4404) and an austenitic-ferritic(duplex) stainless steel(1.4460). Half of the austenitic cylinders had a machined surface and all the others(including duplex cylinders) were machined and grinded to achieve a smoother surface. The blocks used as countersurface were made out of austenitic-ferritic(duplex) stainless steel(1.4460). Equipment used to investigate the wear tracks were stereo microscopy, profilometer, microhardness tester and scanning electron microscopy(SEM). The coatings were investigated in matter such as wear depth, wear mode, wear mechanism, chemical composition, topography, morphology, cross-section and hardness. The results of this work showed that the nickel coating wear tracks maximal depth were less deep than those of hard chrome, at room temperature. At elevated temperatures the performance varies. The coatings deposited onto cylinders made out of duplex stainless steel performed better than those deposited onto austenitic cylinders. The nickel coating performed better deposited onto the substrates with smooth surface and the chrome coating performed better deposited onto the substrates with rough surfac