Wear of Composites Based on Bearing Steel under Action of Electric Current at Boundary Friction against Copper under Different Pressures

Composites based on recycled bearing steel were obtained. They had a high porosity and were sintered without vacuum furnace using. The structure of pore space was characterized by the presence of large pores and a high content of closed pores. It has been shown that these composites, being impregnated with oil, were able to form a sliding electrical contact with high electrical conductivity and quite low wear rate at a contact current density of up to 250 A/cm(2). Increase of the contact pressure to 0.19 MPa caused an increase in the electrical conductivity of the contact and the wear resistance of the composite. It was noted that sliding in such conditions did not lead to a change in the structure of the surface layer.