Friction and Wear at High Sliding Speeds

Sliding tests have been carried out using a variety of soft metal and nonmetal pins on a rotating steel disk at speeds up to 150 m/s. A new high-speed friction apparatus in which the normal force, the friction force and the friction coefficient are recorded, was used. In general, the wear rate increased drastically, and the friction coefficient decreased moderately as the sliding speed was raised, these changes being especially pronounced when pin materials of low melting temperature were used. The friction data are in good agreement with those obtained by others using the pin-on-disk geometry. However, although in many cases the interface reached the melting temperature of the lower melting sliding material, the very low friction coefficient values of under 0.05 reported by some investigators were not reached.