Rapidly solidified 17-7 PH stainless steel containing boron: Abrasive wear behaviour

This paper reports the abrasive wear behaviour of microcrystalline ribbons produced by rapid solidification (RS) of 17-7 PH stainless steel and its boron modified alloys. The ribbons in as-spun and peak aged (PA) conditions were tested against 600 grit SIC papers using a Pin-on-Disc wear testing system. RS is shown to improve the wear resistance of 17-7 PH stainless steel by a factor of two. The wear resistance has also been found to increase Linearly with boron content as well as with micro-Vickers hardness (MHV). SEM studies on worn surfaces show that the wear mechanism involves both microploughing and microcutting modes. With the increase in MHV, the wear mechanism seems to shift more towards the microcutting mode