Stainless steels are well known to be prone to cold welding and material transfer in sliding contacts and therefore difficult to cold form unless certain precautions as discussed in this paper are taken. In the present study different combinations of tool steels/stainless steels/lubricants has been evaluated with respect to their galling resistance using pin-on-disc testing. The results show that a high galling resistance is favored by a high stainless steel sheet hardness and a blasted stainless steel sheet surface topography. The effect of type of lubricant was found to be more complex. For example, the chlorinated lubricants failed to prevent metal-to-metal contact on a brushed sheet surface but succeeded on a blasted sheet surface of the same stainless steel material. This is believed to be due to a protective tribofilm which is able to form on the blasted surface, but not on the brushed surface.
The increasing use of high strength steels in a variety of mechanical engineering applications has illuminated problems associated with galling in sheet metal forming operations. Galling is a tribological phenomenon associated with transfer of material from the steel sheet to the tool surface during forming resulting in seizure of the tool/steel sheet contact and extensive scratching of the steel sheet surface. As a result, a number of concepts have been developed in order to reduce the tendency of galling in sheet metal forming, including the development of new dry lubricants, new forming tool steel grades and improved surface engineering treatments such as the deposition of low friction CVD- and PVD-coatings. In the present study the potential performance of three commercial PVD coatings, including CrN, (Ti,Al)N and a CrC/C DLC-based coating, in the forming of hot and cold rolled high strength steel as well as electro and hot-dip galvanized high strength steel has been evaluated using pin-on-disc testing under lubricated contact conditions. Post-test examination of the tribosurfaces using FEG-SEM and EDS analyses was performed in order to evaluate the mechanisms controlling the tendency to material transfer and wear. The results show that in contact with the hot and cold rolled steel the material pick-up tendency of the PVD coatings tend to increase in the order CrC/C–CrN–(Ti,Al)N while in contact with the two galvanized steel sheets, the CrC/C and the (Ti,Al)N coating show a significantly lower material pick-up tendency as compared with the CrN coating. Further, the substrate hardness has a strong influence on the wear of the PVD coatings and consequently on the friction characteristics and galling tendency of the coating/substrate composite. Low substrate hardness, resulting in a low load bearing capacity, increases the tendency to cracking and subsequently chipping of the brittle coating.
Adhesive accumulation of work material on the tool surface is today a major problem in many sheet metal-forming applications. Different laboratory test methods are used to investigate galling with respect to different tool materials, lubricants and process conditions. In the present study, the galling resistance of a modern nitrogen-alloyed powder metallurgy tool steel and an conventional ingot cast D2 type tool steel was evaluated under lubricated sliding against ferritic stainless steel sheets using a commercial pin-on-disc (POD) and an in-house made slider-on-flat-surface (SOFS) tribotester. The investigated tool steels ranked similarly in terms of galling resistanc in both test methods. However, sliding distances to galling were longer for the SOFS equipment due to continuous sliding on new lubricated sheet surface. Best performance was demonstrated by the powder metallurgy tool steel treated to 65?HRC. Differences in friction behaviour and galling initiation were analysed on the basis of the two different working conditions, i.e. open (SOFS) and closed (POD) tribosystems. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two simulative test methods were used to study galling in sheet forming of two types of stainless steel sheet: austenitic (EN 1.4301) and lean duplex LDX 2101 (EN 1.4162) in different surface conditions. The pin-on-disc test was used to analyse the galling resistance of different combinations of sheet materials and lubricants. The strip reduction test, a severe sheet forming tribology test was used to simulate the conditions during ironing. This investigation shows that the risk of galling is highly dependent on the surface texture of the duplex steel. Trials were also performed in an industrial tool used for high volume production of pump components, to compare forming of LDX 2101 and austenitic stainless steel with equal thickness. The forming forces, the geometry and the strains in the sheet material were compared for the same component. It was found that LDX steels can be formed to high strain levels in tools normally applied for forming of austenitic steels, but tool adaptations are needed to comply with the higher strength and springback of the material.