Wear, friction and prevention of tribo-surfaces by coatings/nanocoatings

Abstract

This chapter gives an broad up-to-date overview of wear, friction and prevention of tribo-surfaces. Tribology is the science and technology of wear, friction and lubrication. It plays an important role in design and performance of all mechanical systems. The basic mechanism of friction involves its physical, chemical and material properties. It is a situation-based or system-based property. The mechanisms involved at microscopic level include adhesive forces between mating surfaces, mechanical interactions of asperities, the ploughing of one surface due to harder asperities of the other, deformation of surfaces or fracture in oxide film and/or the introduction of a third body due to debris as well as environmental effects.Wear is a perennial phenomenon of surface damage in contacting bodies, which may be solid-solid, solid-liquid or solid-air. Wear in solid-solid contacts takes place through two basic phenomena: adhesion and abrasion. There are a number of factors that affect the rate at which the contacting surfaces wear off. It is not possible to completely eliminate losses due to wear and friction, but they can be minimised. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.