Tribological and Lubrication Properties of Sandblast-Textured Surfaces with Varied Roughness

Surface roughening, with certain roughness topography, is thought to be as an effective tribological method of decreasing friction coefficient of kinematic pairs. Friction and wear of AISI1045 steel surface roughened by convenient and economical way of sandblasting was investigated under lubrication conditions. Roughened and polished samples run against Φ4mm GCr15 pin lubricated by engine oil were tested in reciprocating mode with different load and speed on UMT- testing machine. It is found that there exists the optima surface roughness (Ra is about 3.92μm) roughened by sandblasting in which the least wettability contact angle between engine oil and textured steel surface is obtained, hence the lowest friction coefficient and wear rate is due to the optima hydrodynamic sliding property, although the sliding surface was not in hydrodynamic lubrication state.