RAPIDLY SOLIDIFIED 17-7-PH STAINLESS-STEEL CONTAINING BORON - ABRASIVE WEAR BEHAVIOR

This paper reports the abrasive wear behaviour of microcrystalline rib bons produced by rapid solidification (RS) of 17-7 PH stainless steel and its boron modified alloys. The ribbons in as-spun and peak aged (P A) conditions were tested against 600 grit SIC papers using a Pin-on-D isc 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 a lso 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 tow ards the microcutting mode.