Study of Wear Characteristics of AISI D2 Steel

In sheet metal forming, the wear of deforming dies continues to be a great concern to the automotive industry as a result of increasing die maintenance cost and scrap rate. The demand to reduce the use of lubricants and increase tool life in sheet metal stamping has resulted in increased research on the sliding contact between the tool and the sheet material. Hence it has been recognized that the deforming conditions, such as - normal load, sliding speed, sliding time etc. affect the performance of the operation to a greater extent. These deforming parameters are required to be carefully selected to optimize the economics and quality of operations. This can be achieved by detailed investigation and mathematical modeling of performance as a function of sliding conditions using design of experiments (DOE). The objective of the present work is to assess the effect of the sliding parameters on the wear of AISI D2 steel. It is used as the stamping die material in many cold roll forming and other press working industries. It is also known as high carbon & high chromium steel. The experiments have been conducted on WEAR & FRICTION MONITOR TR-201 also known as pin-on-disk apparatus. The wear experiments were performed on pins of D2 steel and disks of mild steel. Design of experiment based on response surface methodology (RSM) with three independent factors (normal load, sliding speed, sliding time) and five level central composite rotatable designs has been used to develop relationships for predicting weight loss of pins caused by rubbing action. The weight loss of pins has been measured within 10-4 g precision.