A CHEMICAL STUDY OF WEAR PARTICLES AND OTHER FEATURES ASSOCIATED WITH THE WEAR OF CERAMICS

A sapphire convex surface was loaded against a reciprocating flat SiC counterface material. In this particular study the chemical nature of the wear surfaces and associated features such as the wear debris and local areas of material transfer have been studied using analytical techniques such as EDX, XPS and AES. Prior to wear tests the SiC substrate is covered with a thin (1-2 nm) layer of SiO2. During wear the thickness of this layer is substantially reduced, and wear debris of a cylindrical morphology is produced. Examination of the outer 1-2 μm of the wear debris, as well as the first few atomic layers, by EDX and AES, respectively, showed very similar results in areas rich in oxygen accompanied by varying quantities of Al and Si but litte carbon. It is proposed that the wear debris is initially produced by the fragmentation of asperities on the two wear surfaces followed by the transfer of a wear film of SiO2. Such equiaxed debris is then agglomerated into a characteristic cylindrical particle that lies normal to the reciprocating motion. © 1990.