Effect of Micro-addition Rare Earth and Chrome on Friction and Wear Behavior of Boronized layer

Application of powder boronizing to mechanical industry has been restricted because of the brittleness of boronized layer, which inevitably leads to decrease of service life of boronized parts. Therefore, attention should be paid to reducing the brittleness of boronized layer without decreasing its high hardness. In the present paper, a study on the effect of micro-addition rare earth and chrome on friction and wear behavior of boronized layer was carried out using an MM-200 wear test machine. Compared with that of pure single Fe2B phase, the brittleness of the boronized layer containing minim rare earth and chrome elements, obtained by powder RE-chrome-boronizing, is reduced, which results in increasing the bearing capacity and wear resistance of the boronized layer. The friction and wear mechanism is also briefly analyzed.