Analysis with taguchi method of wear behaviors of borided AISI 52100 steels

Abstract

In this study, case properties and analysis of wear behaviour of borided AISI 52100 steel with the Taguchi method were investigated by conducting a series of experiments in Ekabor-II powders at process temperatures of 850, 900 and 950 degrees C for periods of 2, 4 and 8 h. The properties of boride layer were evaluated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and micro-Vickers hardness tester. X-ray diffraction analysis of boride layers on the surface of the borided 52100 steel revealed FeB and Fe2B phases. The boride layer thickness increases with increas-ing boriding time and temperature. Hardness of borides formed on the surface of AISI 52100 steel ranged from 1620 to 1989 HV0.05, whereas the Vickers hardness of the untreated AISI 52100 steel was 311 HV0.05.

In this study, the experiment was designed according to the Taguchi orthogo-nal array and variance analysis was carried out according to smaller-the-better signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio with the least abrasion behaviour. According to these results, it was observed that bonding temperature and bonding time had an im-portant effect on the experiment result. The most effective parameters as the results revealed are bonding temperature, sliding rate, load and bonding time.