Wear testing of nano Alumina - Zirconia ceramic matrix composites

Mostly the ceramic tools are made by powder metallurgy techniques, through compacting and sintering. For tribological applications wear rate and coefficient of friction is important. Wear rate is less for alumina and its composites. Ceramic is used for ceramic liners, bearings and drawing dies. Since Nano alumina and composites are having better strength properties they are well suited for the wear resistance applications. In order to test their performance, wear testing has to be carried out. For wear testing a Pin-on-Disc wear testing machine has been designed and fabricated. Upon investigation there is transfer of the metal to the ceramic pin during wear testing due to the strong adhesion between Alumina and the metal. But the transfer of the metal is decreased in the case of Alumina - Zirconia composite. It is observed that the wear rate of the steel disc is higher when the pure alumina pin is used as counter surface than the Alumina - Zirconia composite. Also the coefficient of friction for the Alumina - Zirconia composite is more than the pure Alumina.