Sliding Wear Characteristics of Friction Stir Processed CAST ZK60 Magnesium Alloy Under Different Applied Loads

摘要

Wear resistance and poor friction are the two main draw backs of magnesium alloys that restricts structural applications. Therefore it is essential to enhance the tribological properties of magnesium alloys with the help of surface engineering without causing significant antagonistic effects on the properties of the base metal. Friction stir processing (FSP) is one of the promising thermo-mechanical processing techniques that alters the micro-structural and tribological properties of the material with low production at less period of time. Hence, this investigation enable us to study an effect of friction stir processing on wear characteristics of cast ZK60 magnesium alloy. A pin-on-disc wear testing machine was used to evaluate the wear resistance of surface modified ZK60 magnesium alloy. The result shows that the surface modification by FSP resulted in 26% increase in hardness compared to parent metal. The formation of finer grains and subsequent increase in hardness are the main reasons to improve wear resistance of FSPed ZK60 magnesium alloy.