1989 Volume 97 Issue 1122 Pages 195-199
The ball-on-disk method was applied to measure the wear behavior of Si3N4 balls sliding on SiC disk at the load of 10kgf and velocity of 20cm/s. Four kinds of Si3N4 balls from different sources were named A, B, C, D, in increasing order of their hardness or fracture toughness. The large grain structure and large porosity of Si3N4 (A) will explain its low hardness and low fracture toughness. The fine fibrous structure without porosity of Si3N4 (D) may be the reason of its high hardness and high fracture toughness. The wear volume calculated from the wear scar on a Si3N4 ball sliding on the SiC disk was proportional to the weight loss and to the sliding distance. The wear of Si3N4 ball decreased with increasing hardness or fracture toughness, but on the contrary, the wear of SiC disk increased sharply. The Si3N4 (C) ball, which has crystallized grain boundary phases, showed very low wear of ball but high wear of SiC disk.
