Study of surface appearance and composition effect on AISI 304 and 304L stainless steel wear against nylon wire

The objective of this research was to study effects of surface appearance, chemical composition and direction on wear resistance of polymer-metal interface by using AISI 304, AISI 304L stainless steel and nylon wire as specimens. The analysis of wear resistance was compared before and after the sliding between these specimens. Optical microscope was used to investigate the surface appearance specimens. It was found that sliding direction and surface roughness affected on wear rate, while the chemical composition of AISI 304 and 304L stainless steel had limited effect. The increase of wear rate was correlated to the increase of surface roughness in parallel direction, but wear rate decreased in perpendicular direction. For the AISI 304 stainless steel, wear rate in perpendicular direction was higher than in parallel direction for 0.57 mg, 0.53 mg and 0.39 mg at 0.2 mu m, 0.5 mu m and 1.0 mu m of surface roughness respectively. However, for AISI 304L stainless steel, wear rate in perpendicular direction at 0.2 mu m and 0.5 mu m had a similar result, except for at 1.0 mu m of surface roughness that the wear rate in perpendicular direction was less than in parallel direction for 0.56 mg. This was considered to be related to the amount of the contact area and displacement between nylon wire and steel during the sliding. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.