S.Vigneshwaran et al. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 2, (Part - 3) February 2016, pp.87-92 www.ijera.com 87|Page Study of sliding wear rate of hot rolled steel specimen subjected to Zirconia coating of various thickness S.Vigneshwaran*, P.Rathnakumar** and P.Rajasekaran*** *(Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Er.Perumal Manimekalai College of Engineering, Hosur-635117) ** (Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Er.Perumal Manimekalai College of Engineering, Hosur- 635117) ***(Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Er.Perumal Manimekalai College of Engineering, Hosur-635117) ABSTRACT Wear is nothing but loss of material by usage. In a mechanical industry mechanical components will operate under severe load, temperature and high speeds. Under such a type of situation, when metal to metal contact take place the surfaces that comes in contact is subjected to wear. These should be considered as a serious affair in an industry because if the process of wear continues it can reduce service life of the component and also to the entire mechanical system to which the component has been used. In the light of the above the present work mainly deals with the study of wear behavior of hot rolled steel with and without zirconia coating on the contact surface and the effect of zirconia coating with varying thickness. Keywords - Wear, Friction, Surface coatings, sliding velocity, Sliding distance I. INTRODUCTION Engineering components are subjected to several modes of failure, fatigue, excess deflections and wear. Of these wear is the least predictable using current design methodologies [1]. Till date the process of wear continues to be a threat to many manufacturing industries, because, in industries mechanical components have to operate under severe conditions such as load, speed or temperature [2]. Under such circumstances when two or more metals are in sliding contact with each other loss of material takes place at the contact surface of the material due to high temperature involved. If this process continues for a long time then it can reduce the life of the component and also can have devastating effects on the entire mechanical system. This can even result in huge economic loss if the mechanical system fails. There is constant demand in engineering industry to improve the performance of the machinery while maintaining or reducing the manufacturing cost. In many types of industrial machinery surface damage generated by abrasive or sliding contact limits the durability and product reliability. This drives the implementation of intelligent surface coatings [3] and films which enables to improve the performance of engineering components under contact loading, while retaining or reducing the material and manufacturing requirements of engineering components for the base material. These criteria can me met by providing surface coatings at the point of the contact of the 2 specimens. Coatings are coverings that are applied to the surface of the object, usually referred to as substrate. In many cases coatings can act as best method to increase wear resistance and decrease the temperature at the contact surface of the two metals that are subjected to sliding action. Coatings are expected to meet stringent requirements such as reducing the temperature of the material at the contact surface and providing wear resistance, thereby increasing their performance and efficiency. Wear may be defined as surface damage or removal of material from one or both of two solid surfaces in sliding, rolling or impact motion to one another as a result of mechanical action [4]. The working life of an engineering component comes to an end when dimensional losses have exceeded the tolerance limits. The failure of components in service can often be contributed to wear, corrosion-enhanced wear or erosion. The phenomenon contributing to failure under all these conditions are complex and often specific to particular application [5]. Material properties determining resistance to wear and erosion are complex making it difficult to predict the service behavior of a particular material. The reduction in wear depends on several factors such as normal load, surface temperature, sliding velocity and surface roughness [6]. The adhesive wear is one of the most prevailing wears. It forms 15% of the total industrial wear [7]. According to R.L.Deuis et al [8] adhesive wear occurs when surfaces slide against each other and pressure between the contacting asperities is sufficiently high enough to cause local plastic deformation. The two modes of abrasive wear are two bodies and three body abrasive wear. The two RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS