Wear Testing of Bronze on Steel Spherical Interface

This paper presents the results obtained and deductions made from spherical wear tests involving bronze shells against steel balls of 25 mm diameter. These tests were carried out using a specially developed spherical wear testing machine. (Indian Patent No. 198349/2003). Test runs lasting for 8150 minutes covers both the run-in and the mild wear regimes. The wear was estimated by direct mass loss method and correlated with surface profile measurements by periodic monitoring. The wear coefficient for this spherical interface was also computed. Macrographs of worn out surfaces, the variation in center-line average roughness parameter (Ra) of the shell, details of wear debris and the acoustic emission signals obtained are reported and discussed. In conclusion, this work, presents the wear characteristics of spherical contacts and attempts to standardize wear testing of spherical joints, like the standard pin-on-disc testing for planar interfaces.