A Contribution to the Analysis of the transition mild to severe wear through a morphological and chemical standpoint

In this paper one case of transition from mild to severe wear is analyzed in detail from a morphological and chemical viewpoint. The research work is articulated in three phases: experimental campaign on a pin-on-disk test machine; morphological and chemical analysis of the disk specimens; and interpretation and discussion of the collected evidences. In the first phase, consisting in the data and sample specimen acquisition, a standard pin-on-disk test machine is used, the linear wear parameter being on-line monitored during the tests. The morphological and chemical analyses are conducted by means of different instruments, such as Optical Microscope (O.M.), Scanning Electronic Microscopy (S.E.M.), profilometers, and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (E.D.S.). The discussion on the characteristics, detected during observation and analysis, is based on their relations to the structural, operational, and interactional parameters under which the tribosystem has worked.