Effects of Hardness on Sliding Wear Behavior of Tempered Bearing Steel

In this study, sliding wear tests were conducted to investigate the effects of tempered hardness on the sliding wear behavior of bearing steel. At a sliding speed of 0.3 m/s, the wear resistance of bearing steel with a tempered hardness of HRC 54 was superior to that with HRC 62. It was found that bearing steel with HRC 54 showed a strong tendency for the occurrence of oxidation wear at that speed, compared to that with HRC 62. This would be due to the troostitic structure of bearing steel with HRC 54, which is highly susceptible to corrosion. In this context, it is considered that sliding wear behavior could be affected by the corrosion resistance of the material.