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Ceramic Tribology in Japan: Yuji Enomoto
Ceramic Tribology in Japan: Yuji Enomoto
Ceramic
tribology
Inrernafional
in Japan
Yuji Enomoto
ceramics,
friction,
wear,
tribochemistry,
solid lubricant
Introduction
During the last decade, especially since the National
R&D programme on Fine ceramics was initiated in
Japan in 1981 to promote basic studies on the practical
application of ceramics, engineering ceramics have
attracted the attention of many researchers as promising
tribomaterials
for mechanical components operating
under severe or hostile environments. Practical applications, however, have been slow to materialize in
comparison with initial expectations. Nevertheless,
silicon nitride ball bearings have now been in use since
1986, and mechanical parts for car engines, such as
valves, turbocharger rotors and rocker-arms made of
silicon nitride. have followed.
Deformation
and fracture
in sliding
contact
Engineering
Laboratory,
Namiki
I-2,
Tsukuba,
Ibaraki
Tribology
International
1995
Ceramic
tribology
in Japan:
longitudinal
contact
Y. Enomoto
model
L-shaped
crack
Tribochemistry
environments
Standard
of ceramics in gaseous
tt tt
-1000
t
Mg St Fe
heat of oxide
-2000
TlAl
fromation
(kJ/mol)
Amount
Tribology
International
Volume
28 Number
of ionic
character,
Fig 3 Adsorption
activity of non-oxide
function of ionic character
1 February
1995
4b
ceramics
as a
Ceramic
GZiSG3
Friction
CoeffiCient
0.2
a)
0.4
specific
0.6
0.8
,o
1.0
H2a
C&OH
rate
mm2lN
10-7 ,0-s
7
Nz
wear
I
H
CHJCOOl
l-l
(CH312CO
C&4
C&6
b)
I*
m
Y
NZ
H20
C&OH
tally 0.1250.6,
0.1420.2, 0.08?0.3 and 0.11?0.4,
respectively. To further improve the lubricity of
ceramics, some additives are needed. Tsuya et all3
showed that engineering ceramics and ceramic coatings
are very sensitive to the base oils with and without
SP-type additives. Ceramic coatings such as Ti02,
Cr203 and ZrO, showed better tribological responses
in the oils at elevated temperatures of around 300C.
Lubrication
u
I*
II
(CH3)2CO
m*
.i
I*
c6b
Y. Enomoto
l-4
CHjCOOH
C6H14
in Japan:
I+
tribology
a)
.,
35,
in low-viscosity
fluids
AlkYl
LYP
.I[.
1Y
type
(a) phosphite
Lubrication
x iU8m&kg~mm
in oils
silane
3 aq.
0.001
0.01
0.1
mol/l
molll
molll
5
I
10
15
2b
Volume
28 Number
1 February
1995
Ceramic
tribology
in Japan:
Y. Enomoto
hydrophilic
silicic acid film, formed on the sliding
surface, easily dissolves in a solution of higher pH
values. On the other hand, dissolving of the film is
suppressed in a solution of a lower pH value, and
thus a thin, tight film forms on the sliding surfaces,
helping to reduce the friction coefficient.
Lubrication
tests of S&N4 with water and water
dissolved in oil by Kimura and Okada19 showed that
the friction of S&N4 in water and water + polyalkylene
glycol was high in the low Hersey number region, and
transition to very low friction took place at a threshold
value, forming Stribeck-like curves in some cases, but
no such transition was found with the emulsion with
a paraffinic base oil. The presence of water considerably
increased the amount of wear.
Kitaoka et al.*O investigated the tribological characteristics of a-alumina and S&N4 in a high-temperature
water vapour up to 300C. They showed that the wear
of these ceramics significantly increases at elevated
temperatures. The wear of alumina is attributed to
the solution of intergranular impurities and corrosion
cracking*, whereas the tribochemical dissolution into
water in the following reaction scheme is the predominant wear mechanism for Si3N4*l:
Si3N4 + 6H2O + 3Si0,
+ 4NH3
+ R**NH,
C2H5,
C3H7,
H,
H,
+ Polymer
C4J&
lead to the emission of charged particles, the socalled tribo-emission or fracto-emission. Although this
behaviour has been known since ancient times, the
relationship
between tribo-electrification
and triboinduced physiochemistry is not yet fully understood.
The effect of environmental
gas pressure of triboelectrification of various ceramics under sliding contact
was measured using a vibrating-reed type electrostatic
voltmeter26. As seen in Fig 8, the surface electrostatic
potential in a Zr02 pin on a ZrO,, disk configuration
reached as high as 3 kV at a N2 pressure of less than
10 Pa, and decreased quickly to the level of 0.5 kV
around the N2 pressure range of 0.1-l Pa. Although
the wear of Zr02 was so small that it could not be
measured, it is interesting to note that the wear of
Sic was minimum at a similar pressure range. Further
detailed investigation is needed to clarify the mechanism responsible for the correlation between triboelectrification and the friction and wear behaviour of
ceramics.
Intense fracto- or tribo-emission of charged particles
from fracturing brittle solids has been successfully
measured under atmospheric conditions using a newly
developed fast operating charge amplifier.
It was
suggested that the fracto-emission of electrons is caused
by the separation of charges on the fracturing surfaces,
which leads to the formation
of an electric field
and the liberation of exo-electrons28. Recently this
technique has been used to investigate the electrical
activity of fracturing rocks for studying the source
mechanism of seismic electromagnetic
signals29 and
the role of charged particles under boundary lubrication
conditions30.
High-temperature
solid
lubrication
phenomena
of ceramics causes triboelectrification.
the sliding and fracture of ceramics also
aI
'G
5
7!!!2i
----\
.
0.6-
.-a
ew
.\
E
c 0.4.-0
z
Tribology
International
Volume
- 1 t
z
10-4
,jL,
100
N2 pressure
Coefficient
28 Number
z
9
0e
/
-2a
0.2-
lk
Friction
/'.
','
1
3 5
lo4
(Pa)
Fig 8 Electrostatic
potential of Sic due to frictional
electrification as a function of N2 pressure26
1 February
1995
Ceramic
1.0
Co fflm(0.2
T I film
(1 vam)/AlzO3~
T I fllm(0.2
pm)/AlzO3
NaZrO3
t
8
pm)lA12Og
+ 23.3%CrzO3/Al~O3
500
Temperature,
1000
S&N,
SIC
40s
30,
tribology
in Japan:
Y. Enomoto
of ceramics.
(b) Metallic
oxides
as detected
on sliding
Cr
Mn
Fe
co
Ni
cu
&I
Ni-Cr
C
A
A
B
A
A
A
C
A
A
A
C
A
A
A
C
A
B
B
C
C
C
A
A
C
C
A
C
A
A
C
B
A: fair W, i 3 x lo-
mgim,
very little damage
B: good
W, < 3 x 10m6 mg/m,
slight damage
C: no good W, > 3 x 10ee mg/m,
substantial
damage
lb)
Cr
Mn
Fe
co
cu
Ag
Ni-Cr
Si,N,
CrAL
MM3
Mn304
cu-Fe,O,
Co,SiO,
cowo,
&I
SiO,
SIC
CrA
MnJL
MM,
cu-Fe,O,
SiO,
Co,SiO,
SiO,
cue
SiO,
cue
cu,o
SiO,
NiO
NiCr,O,
NiO
CrA
NiCr,O,
Ni,Si
ZrO,
Cr203
wFe203
wFe,O,
(Fe,AI 1203
FeAI,O,
cy-Fe,O,
co304
co3Ql
CoAI,O,
coo
co,o*
cue
cue
CuAIO,
CuAI,O,
cue
cu,o
Ag
40,
(700C -+I
Mn,O,
MnAI,O,
CrJL
Tribology
International
MM,
Volume
(Ag)
SiO,
Ag
Ag
28 Number
NiO
NiCr,O,
NiAI,O,
NiO
NiCr,O,
1 February
1995
Ceramic
tribology
in Japan:
Y. Enomoto
Conclusions
Recent studies on the tribological behaviour of engineering ceramics have demonstrated that unique tribological interactions with environmental
species often
significantly affect the friction and wear characteristics
of engineering ceramics. These findings suggest that
such characteristics of engineering ceramics may be
utilized for tribomaterials
under certain special conditions.
Newly developed micro-analytical
tools are expected
to reveal the nature of tribo-induced physiochemical
interactions at the atomic and molecular level, thus
increasing the reliability of tribomaterial
design.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Ceram.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Professor Y. Kimura
the opportunity to present this review paper.
for
References
1. Enomoto Y., Yamanaka
K. and Saito K. Some applications of
cathodoluminescence mode in a scanning electron microscope
for studying the wear behavior of ceramics. Wear 1986, 110,
239-250
2. Enomoto Y. Studies of deformation and fracture behavior of
brittle solids under sliding contact. Reports of Me&. Eng. Lab.
1992, No. 158
3. Kimura
Y., Okada
K. and Enomoto
Y. Sliding damage of
silicon nitride in plane contact. Wear 1989, 133, 147-161
4. Kimura Y. and Shima M. A fracture-mechanics approach to
ceramic wear. To be published in Tribology
Transactions
5. Hokkirigawa
K., Kato K., Kitsunai
I-I. and Mizumoto
M.
Microscopic wear mechanism of alumina and silicon nitride
observed in the FE-SEM tribosystem. Proc. Japan Internat.
Tribology
Conf., Nagoya, 1990, pp. 1413-1418
6. Hokkirigawa
K. Wear mode map of ceramics. Wear 1991, 151,
219-228
I. Sasaki S. Effects of environment on friction and wear of
ceramics. Bull. Mech. Eng. Lab. 1992, No. 58
H., Enomoto
A. and Sasada T. Friction and wear of
8. Hiratsuka
A1203, ZrO, and SiOz rubbed against pure metals. Wear of
Materials
1991,
Tribology
International
Sot.
1992,
75, 3075-3080
1, 375-381
Trans.
1992,
35, 643-650