Evaluation of Durability of SOG-layers on Steel Surfaces by Wear and Scratch Tests

• Steel moulds with high precision surfaces are being used in various branches. Process aspects, like tool life and tribological properties, as well as design issues are of great importance. This work summarises experimental studies performed to test durability properties of SOG (spin-on-glass)-layers on steel surfaces. This coating technique is based on a newly developed method for surface preparation of tools which has been demonstrated to be durable for more than 66.000 replications in injection moulding processes without loss of surface fidelity. The procedure allows surface roughness reduction from approximately 200 nm Ra down to some few nm for high gloss applications, as well as easy transfer of large-area functional nanostructures on complex 3D surfaces.Three different types of surfaces were investigated: SOG-layered metal surfaces with three different layer thicknesses, one ingot casted and one electro slag remelted material (with hardness level of 950 and 2500 MPa, respectively). The metal surfaces were ground and polished to mirrorlike finishes.Three circular samples of each type were rubbed against a hard steel ball of 6.35 mm radius on a commercial pin-on-disk tribometer. To resemble the molding process a sliding speed of 2 mm/s and a load of 8 N were chosen. The tests were performed with 5 minutes intervals until the first damage on the surface were observed. In parallel, scratch tests were performed in the same tribometer. The surfaces were measured in-situ by a portable microscope and a stylus, and afterwards by a white light interferometer and scanning electron microscope to evaluate the size of the wear/scratch traces.The surface type with the longest time to damage and/or smallest wear/scratch traces was considered to be the most durable one.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Tribologi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Tribology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

mirror finish

tribometer

ball-on-disk

scratch-test

SOG-layers

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)