CHARACTERIZATION OF FOUR BALL METALLIC WEAR MECHANISMS USING SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Abstract

Nowadays, lubricants play an important role in several automotive industries around the world because they reduce friction and wear on engines moving parts such as piston ring, cylinder liner and valve control systems of compression ignition engines. The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of bio-oil (palm oil) on metallic wear. The tribological test was conducted using a four-ball tribometer as indicated by engineering testing standard ASTM (D4172) under the conditions of 392 N applied load, 75°C and the period of 60 minutes. These four ball surfaces were observed by using 3D Optical Microscope (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis. According to the four-ball wear test, the comparison of average wear scars diameter between two different types of bio-oil and SAE 0W30 engine oil were investigated. Furthermore, wear scar depth from 3D microscope and SEM images of different magnification were compared in the viewpoint of wear mechanism analysis.