Wear and contact conductivity of multicomponent copper/stainless steel additively manufactured alloys in unlubricated sliding with passing electric current

Multicomponent stainless steel/copper alloys were produced using dual-wire and electron beam additive manufacturing (WEBAM) with addition of 10 vol%, 25 vol% 36 vol% and 50 vol% of stainless steel. Tribological testing was carried out with and without passing electric current on samples oriented with their layers parallel and perpendicular to the worn surfaces. The ascending dependencies of wear and descending dependencies of coefficient of friction from electric current density have been obtained along with the voltage current ones to characterize the sliding contact performance. At low current levels, sliding behavior was similar to that in dry sliding conditions, characterized by adhesive wear and the formation of tribological transfer layers formed on the worn surfaces. Passing higher currents led to the formation of smooth tribological layers containing the in-situ formed spinels with the wear mechanism transition to flow wear. The wear dependencies did not allow observing the differences that related to the sample orientation with respect to worn surface because of generation of mechanically mixed layers.