Experimental Studies on the Influence of Abrasive Materials on the Wear of Hard-Wearing Steels

The paper presents the wear properties of hard-wearing steels and structural steels used in mining and transport machines exposed to the aggressive action of the environment, which have been determined experimentally in the presence of diverse abrasive materials. The wear tests were carried out on a ring-on-ring test rig simulating the operating conditions of elements exposed to abrasive wear. The samples were subjected to tests in conditions of sliding contact, and the main destructive process was micro-cutting of the surface with loose corundum or quartz grain. In the case of the coal abrasive, only slight grinding in of the mating surfaces was observed. The loss of mass in the samples was measured as the parameter characterizing the wear. It was then used to determine the volume loss. Based on the results obtained, it was found that the wear resistance of hard-wearing steels was approximately four times higher as compared to S355J2 structural steel for the corundum and quartz abrasives. In the case of the coal abrasive, there was a relatively low wear for all of the materials examined.