Effect of Directionality of Grinding Marks on Friction at Different Surface Roughness Using Inclined Scratch Test

Surface topography of a tool plays an important role as it predominantly controls the frictional behavior at the interface. In the present study, Inclined Scratch Tester was used to understand the effect of directionality of surface grinding marks on coefficient of friction and transfer layer formation. EN8 steel flats were ground to attain different surface roughness with unidirectional grinding marks. Then Al-Mg alloy pins were scratched against the prepared EN8 steel flats. Grinding angle (angle between direction of scratch and grinding marks) was varied between 0° and 90° during the scratch tests. It was observed that the coefficient of friction and transfer layer formation depend primarily on the directionality of grinding marks of the harder mating surface, and independent of surface roughness of harder mating surface. The grinding angle effect on coefficient of friction was attributed to the variation of plowing component of friction with grinding angle.