Friction and wear mechanisms of thin organic permanent coatings deposited on hot-dip coated steel

Adhesive wear, generally defined as 'wear due to localised bonding between contacting solid surfaces leading to material transfer between the two surfaces or loss from either surface' is a common phenomenon in many sliding contact tribosystems, e.g, sheet metal forming operations. In these operations, galling, i.e. seizure of the sheet surface caused by transfer of sheet material to the tool surface, is frequently a problem since it may results in scratching of the formed sheet surface and eventually cracking and fracture of the product due to high friction forces. In order to reduce the coefficient of friction and the galling tendency in sheet metal forming operations thin organic coatings has been introduced on the market with the intention of improving the performance of hot-dip coated steel sheet. In summary, these coatings have the potential to increase the formability without additional lubrication and serve as temporary corrosion protection during transportation. In the present study, the friction and wear mechanisms of five different thin organic permanent coatings deposited on hot-dip coated (Zn and 55% Al-Zn) steel sheet is evaluated by modified scratch testing. The results obtained show that this test method permits easy and reproducible evaluation of the tribological properties of thin organic coatings. Further, these coatings show a high potential when it comes to improve the formability of hot-dip coated steel. The results obtained are discussed in relation to the identified friction and wear mechanisms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.