Examination of Microstructure and Wear Behaviour of a Roller Material Produced by Centrifugal Casting

In this study, the microstructure of a roller material produced by centrifugal casting was characterized and its worn surface was examined after wear test. In the first stage of the study, centrifugal casting was used to produce cast iron based roller material. The cross-section of cast matrix was examined using light and scanning electron microscopy after metallographic preparations. In the second stage, 'ball-on-disc' type tribometer was used to investigate the wear behaviour of the cast part under dry sliding condition. In order to observe the effect of loading force, the samples were subjected to 10 N, 30 N and 50 N load and the total sliding distance was selected as 500 m. After wear tests, all the worn surfaces were examined using both light and scanning electron microscopy. It is concluded that (i) the roller had pearlitic cast iron matrix having nodular graphite and eutectic carbide, (ii) worn surfaces exhibited typical abrasive and partial adhesive wear tracks, (iii) as the loading force increased the friction coefficient in addition to weight loss of cast iron matrix increased.