Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

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Wear
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A simulation of wear behaviour of high-speed steel hot rolls by means

of high temperature pin-on-disc tests
Hongtao Zhu a,*, Qiang Zhu a, Anh Kiet Tieu a, Buyung Kosasih a, Charlie Kong b
a
b

Faculty of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northelds Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Electron Microscope Unit, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 1 September 2012
Received in revised form
13 November 2012
Accepted 17 November 2012
Available online 29 November 2012

In this paper, a high temperature pin-on-disc conguration was used to simulate the contact
established between a high-speed steel (HSS) work roll and a hot strip material in hot rolling, in
which the pin represented the HSS roll and the disc represented a strip steel. The pin surfaces were
oxidised due to the heat transfer from the disc while they were in contact. This work focused on the
contact behaviour of the oxide scale in the roll bite during hot rolling while the testing temperature was
close to the rolling temperature, the Hertzian pressure was similar to the contact pressure and the
sliding speed was close to those in the roll bite. The coefcient of friction during the tests was
monitored and recorded in-situ. It was found that the evolution of the coefcient of friction could be
divided into three stages. Associated with the evolution of the coefcient of friction, the morphologies
and micro-structures on the surface of pin were characterised by means of SEM, FIB and TEM
techniques to study the tribological behaviour of oxide scale in contacts. The results indicated that
the wear mechanism of pin surface varies in different stages. At the stages I and II, the oxide scale on
the pin surface is signicantly deformed. At the stage III, which the coefcient of friction is stable, the
wear mechanism is a mixture of adhesion, abrasion and oxidation. The oxide transfer from the mild
carbon steel disc to HSS pin signicantly contributed to the scale formed on the HSS pin surface.
& 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Oxide scale
Tribology
High-speed steel
Pin-on-disc

1. Introduction
High-speed steels (HSS) have become the most favourable material choice of manufacturing hot rolls for their excellent mechanical
performance, i.e. hardness and wear resistance, at elevated temperatures. During hot rolling process, a supercial oxide scale forms on
the work rolls due to thermal cyclic working conditions. This oxide
scale plays a major role in hot rolling because it allows the starting
and driving of metal sheet between the rolls [1,2]. Under thermomechanical working conditions this scale grows to a critical thickness
and then deteriorates and causes damage by inlaying and breaking
down on the surfaces of rolled product and tools. The wear mechanisms of the work rolls in hot rolling are well known, i.e. thermal
fatigue, abrasion, adhesion and oxidation. However, little attention
has been given to the oxidation of rolling-mill roll surface and its
effects on the tribological behaviour [3]. The tribological behaviour of
oxides is very complex. It could be abrasive and therefore detrimental,
or lubricated and form a protection against wear, either way it is
inuenced by the nature and physical properties of the oxide scales
into which it makes contact [47].

Corresponding author. Tel.: 61 2 4221 4549; fax: 61 2 4221 3101.

E-mail address: hongtao@uow.edu.au (H. Zhu).

0043-1648/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2012.11.032

Although it is still a challenge for researchers to simulate hot

rolling conditions in a laboratory, several test congurations have
been developed. Many researchers used a disc-on-disc conguration to study the wear mechanism of the hot rolls [818], one
simulating the hot strip, the other one simulating the roll. Some
researchers referred to a pin-on-disc conguration [4,20,21]. The
tribological properties are system-dependent and have been
found sensitive to the condition changes of the contact surfaces,
such as the formation, accumulation, agglomeration and sintering
of wear particles on the surface [18,19]. Hokkirigawa et al. [20]
developed an in-situ CCD microscope pin-on-disc tribosystem to
analyse the microscopic sliding wear mechanism of oxide lms on
hot roll surfaces. Using this system the dynamic wear process of
oxide lms on hot roll surface were observed successfully. Vergne
et al. [4] carried out an extensive investigation of the interaction
between the oxides formed on the surface of a work roll and the
coefcient of friction established when hot rolling steel by pinon-disc tests. Joos et al. [21] tried to identify and assess the wear
mechanism involved in the hot tribological behaviour of high
speed steel roll grades by carrying out a series of pin-on-disc tests
at elevated temperatures. They argued that the tribological
behaviour of roll grades at high temperature was strongly affected
by the nature, thickness, and thermo-mechanical properties of
their oxide scales involved in the contact. In the current work, a

H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

pin-on-disc test rig was used to identify the role of oxide scale on
the tribological behaviour, in which the pin represented the HSS
roll and the disc represented a steel strip. This work is an attempt
to study the wear of the high-speed steel, especially concerning
the oxide evolution during contact in the roll bite of hot strip
rolling. Although the continuously sliding contact in pin-on-disc
tests is different from cyclic sliding/rolling contact of work roll on
hot strip, it can help us to gain a fundamental understanding of
the role of the oxide scale in high speed work roll wear in hot
rolling. The testing temperature was chosen close to the rolling
temperature, the Hertzian pressure was similar to the contact
pressure and the sliding speeds were close to those in the rolling
bite of hot rolled strip. The coefcient of friction was monitored
and recorded in-situ during the tribological tests. Scanning
electron microscope (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) techniques were used to characterise the morphologies and micro structures of the contact
zones on the surface of the pin. The evolution of oxide on HSS pin
during the test, especially scale spallation and oxide transfer from
hot disc, and its inuence on wear mechanism at the different
stages have been investigated.

2. Experimental procedure
The pin-on-disc tests were carried out on the CETR tribometer.
This device is not a hot rolling simulator, but this laboratory
apparatus can reveal the oxidational wear mechanism involved in
hot rolling [21]. In a pin-on-disc conguration, the pin represented the HSS grade material and the disc represented a strip
steel (Fig. 1). The chemical compositions of these two materials
are listed in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The pin is manufactured

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of high temperature pin-on-disc test conguration.

Table 1
Chemical composition of the HSS pin material (wt%), analysed by X-ray uorescence spectroscopy.
Fe

Ni

Mn

Cr

Mo

Si

Balanced

1.96

0.78

1.26

4.85

4.47

4.00

3.40

0.99

0.028

0.034

1311

into a mushroom shape with a 3 mm radius hemispherical end as

shown in Fig. 1.
The tribological tests were carried out in the following two
steps: (i) in the rst step, the disc was heated up to 900 1C in a
heating chamber while the pin was kept at room temperature
outside the heating chamber. A k-type thermocouple was placed
underneath the disc to monitor its temperature during the tests;
(ii) in the second step, when the temperature of the disc reached
900 1C, the pin was brought into contact with the disc and held for
20 min for pre-oxidation before stating to rotate the disc. The
duration of the following wear test was up to 1 h. A K-type
thermocouple was embedded into the pin, approximately 2 mm
vertical distant away from the contact (as demonstrated in Fig. 1)
to monitor its temperature during the test. The heating of the disc
was not interrupted in order to maintain the high temperature
(900 1C) during the sliding test. After each test, the pin was pulled
up out of the heating chamber and cooled in the air.
Table 3 shows the operating conditions of the tribological
tests. Test parameters such as the Hertzian pressure were chosen
mild and close to the practical hot rolling conditions in order to
observe the behaviour of the antagonistic oxide scales in the
contact zone without destroying them too fast. The coefcient of
friction was monitored and recorded in-situ during the test. The
interrupted tests were performed to understand the interaction of
the oxides corresponding to the evolution of friction coefcient
curve during the tests. After the tribological tests, SEM, FIB and
TEM were used to characterise the morphologies, cross-sections
and microstructures of the pin surface at both the contact and
non-contact zones.

3. Results
Fig. 2 shows the evolution of temperatures of disc and pin
surface during the test. It can be seen that the temperature of the
disc remained stable at 900 1C throughout the whole test while
the pin quickly reached approximately 660 1C (less than 5 min)
after making contact with the heated disc. The pin was kept
contacting with the heated disc for 20 min for pre-oxidation
before the test started. It should be noted that this monitored
pin temperature refers to the location 2 mm vertically away from
the sliding contact zone.
Fig. 3a shows a friction coefcient curve of a typical tribological test under a normal load of 5 N and a sliding speed 0.05 m/s.
It can be seen that the friction stabilised in a very short time (less
than 300 s) from the start of the test and the friction coefcient
remained at approximately 0.260.28 for the most of the test
period. According to the friction coefcient curve, the pin-on-disc
test can be divided into three stages, as shown in Fig. 3b; (i) the
rst stage, noted Stage I, the friction coefcient decreased
Table 3
Operating conditions of the pin-on-disc test.
Normal
load

Hertzian
pressure

Sliding
speed

Disc
temperature

Testing duration

5N

650 MPa

0.05 m/s

900 1C

90 s, 150 s, and
1h

Table 2
Chemical composition of the disc material (wt%), analysed by atomic emission spectroscopy.
Fe

Mn

Si

Ni

Cr

Mo

Cu

Al

Balanced

0.215

0.015

0.79

0.34

0.029

0.006

0.020

o 0.002

0.014

o 0.003

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H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

Fig. 2. Temperatures of disc and pin surface during a typical tribological test.

Fig. 4. (a) Secondary electron (SE) image of the pin wear track after the
tribological test at normal load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s for 90 s (in Stage
I), (b) TEM bright eld image of the cross section of the pin wear track, FIB was
used to prepare the cross section.

Fig. 3. (a) Evolution of friction coefcient during the pin-on-disc test with
conditions of normal load 5 N, and sliding speed 0.05 m/s; (b) three tribological
stages and two interrupted points considered in a typical pin-on-disc test.

immediately after the start of the wear test; (ii) the second stage,
noted Stage II, corresponds to an increase in the friction coefcient after the minimum value; (iii) the last stage, noted Stage III,
is the stabilisation step of the friction. To better understand the
tribological behaviour, two interrupted pin-on-disc tests, which
have been labelled in Fig. 3b, were performed to investigate the
evolution of tribological contact mechanisms during the test. The
rst interrupted test corresponds to the end of Stage I (around
90 s from the start of the test), the second interrupted test refers
to the middle of Stage II (around 150 s from the start of the test).
Fig. 4a shows the wear track of the pin surface after an
interrupted pin-on-disc test which terminated at 90 s since the

start of the test in Stage I. According to the friction coefcient

curve shown in Fig. 3b, it is near the end of stage I. It can be seen a
compact and smooth glaze oxide scale was visible on the
surface of the worn pin after the test (Fig. 4a). Fig. 4b shows the
TEM bright eld image of the cross-section of the pin wear track
where this glaze oxide scale was approximately 850 nm thick.
The oxide scale was highly compressed because the microstructure of the scale is dense and free of pores. Although the interface
between the oxide scale and the HSS substrate can be clearly
observed, the bond between the oxide scale and HSS substrate is
strong because there are no visible cracks and micro-pores at the
interface. Underneath the oxide the HSS substrate has been
deformed into the banding grains in an array and direction
consistent with a sliding direction.
Fig. 5a shows the wear track of the pin surface after an
interrupted pin-on-disc test which stopped at 150 s since the
start of the test (in Stage II). The morphology of the surface of the
pin is quite different from that at the Stage I. A discontinuous
glaze oxide scale covers the worn surface of the pin. A higher
magnication SEM observation on the wear track indicates that
the discontinuity of the glaze oxide scale was due to the oxide

H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

1313

Fig. 5. (a) Secondary electron (SE) image of the pin wear track after the pin-on-disc test at normal load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s for 150 s (in Stage II), (b) higher
magnied SE image of the pin wear track, the sample is titled 531, and (c) TEM bright eld image of the cross section of the pin wear track, FIB was used to prepare the
cross section.

scale spalling in some areas of the sliding contact zone on the pin
surface (Fig. 5b). In this spallation area the sub-surface of the pin
was re-oxidised because it had no protection from original oxide
scale. Fig. 5c shows the TEM bright eld image of the crosssection of the contact zone (non-spallation area) of the pin
showing a compact oxide scale of approximately 800 nm covering
the pin surface. The bonding of the oxide scale and HSS substrate
was still very good because there are no visible cracks and micropores at the interface.
Fig. 6a shows the wear track of the pin after 1 hs pin-on-disc
test (Stage III). It can be seen that the morphology of the wear
track at Stage III is different to Stage II. The contact zone of the pin
surface is covered by a discontinuous glaze oxide scale; however, the adherent non-spallation glaze oxide scale is much
thicker compared with that at Stage II. As shown in Fig. 6d, the
oxide spallation is prevalent and serious in the sliding contact
zone. The ne oxide debris can be clearly observed left inside the
contact region; and the crack propagation occurs in the contacted
oxide. As shown in Fig. 6b and c, there are clear interfaces
between the sliding contact zone and non-contact area either at
the front and tail of wear track.
Fig. 7a shows the SE and TEM bright eld images of the cross
section of wear track after 1 hs pin-on-disc test (end of Stage III).
It can be seen that the pin wear track is covered by an oxide scale
of non-uniform thickness and at the centre of the wear track, a
small piece of material has been rubbed off and cracks underneath propagated into the substrate. It is possible that this
material rubbed off is vanadium MC carbide. Fig. 7b shows the
detailed microstructure of the cross-section of the pin wear track
where glaze oxide scale is adhering to the substrate and after
the pin-on-disc test, a thick oxide has developed in the contact

zone. The total thickness of the adherent non-spallation oxide

scale was approximately 9.5 mm, which is signicantly higher
than that in Stage I (850 nm) and Stage II (800 nm). From a top
down view the glaze oxide scale seems to be compact and
smooth, but there are two large cracks inside the oxide scale
parallel to the surface, which actually divides the oxide scale into
three sub-layers (Fig. 7b). These two large cracks weaken the
oxide integrity and promote the oxide spallation. Fig. 7c shows
very ne-grained oxides (less than 200 nm) formed at the contact
frontier; while the inner part of scale consists of a little larger
oxide grain at about 400 nm (Fig. 7d). Fig. 8 shows the TEM/X-ray
mapping of the inner part of the oxide scale and its interface
between the oxide scale and HSS substrate. The results indicated
that the adherent oxide scale mainly consists of iron oxides
(Fe2O3 and Fe3O4). Chromium oxides and vanadium oxides only
appeared in the most inner part of the oxide scale and at the
interface between the oxide scale and HSS substrate.
Fig. 9a shows the morphology of the pin surface outside the
contact zone (wear track) but very close, after the test for 150 s at
the end of Stage II. The pin surface is covered by iron oxides and
large parallelepiped vanadium oxides. Fig. 9b shows the TEM bright
eld image of the cross-section of this non-contact surface of the
oxidised pin where the oxide scale consists of a large crystalline
outer layer of iron oxide (Fe2O3) and a ne-grained inner oxide layer
of Fe3O4, Cr2O3 and (Fe, Cr)-rich spinel oxides. There is a porous and
clear interface between the oxide scale and HSS substrate. The oxide
scale is approximately 1 mm thick. The oxidised pin surface became
rough due to protrusions of iron oxides and vanadium oxides.
Fig. 10a shows the morphology of the non-contact area of the
pin, very close to the sliding contact zone after 1 h test at the end
of Stage III. It can be seen that the surface is covered by a

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H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

Fig. 6. (a) Secondary electron (SE) image of the pin wear track after the pin-on-disc test at normal load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s for 1 h (end of Stage III),
(b) morphology of the wear track front, (c) morphology of the wear track tail, and (d) spallation and wear debris at the wear track.

Fig. 7. (a) Secondary electron (SE) image of the cross-section of the pin wear track after the pin-on-disc test at normal load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s for 1 h (end of
Stage III), (b) TEM bright eld image of cross-section of the wear track, (c) higher magnied TEM bright eld image of the oxide scale at the contact frontier, and (d) higher
magnied TEM bright eld image of the oxide scale near the interface of oxide scale and the HSS matrix.

H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

1315

Fig. 8. TEM/X-ray mapping of the cross-section pin wear track after tribological test at normal load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s for 1 h (inner part of the oxide scale and
the HSS matrix).

continuous porous oxide scale with iron oxide whiskers and

parallelepiped vanadium oxides protruding from the scale.
Fig. 10b clearly shows the morphology of the scale in a crosssectional view. TEM/X-ray mapping of the cross-section of the
oxide scale revealed that the scale consists of two sub-layers, with
the outer layer being mainly large columnar iron oxide (Fe2O3)
and the inner layer a mixture of ne iron oxides and chromium
oxides (Fe3O4, Cr2O3 and (Fe, Cr)-spinel oxides). The parallelepiped vanadium oxides are protruding from the oxide scale (as
seen in Fig. 10c). The oxide scale in non-contact area was around
2.8 mm thick after 1 h pin-on-disc test (the protruding vanadium
oxides were not included in measuring the scale thickness).
Fig. 11 shows the SE image of the cross-section of oxide scale
formed on the mild carbon steel disc after 1 h pin-on-disc test at

900 1C. The oxide scale was around 70 mm thick after the test. The
oxide scale consists of three sub-layers; the outer layer is
haematite (Fe2O3) approximately 4.7 mm, the columnar crystalline middle layer is magnetite (Fe3O4) approximately 19 mm thick,

and the large-grained inner layer is wustite

(FeO) approximate
46 mm thick.

4. Discussion
The temperature of the pin and disc were well controlled
during the pin-on-disc tests (Fig. 2). The surface temperature of
the disc was kept at 900 1C with uctuations less than 2 1C. The
surface temperature of the pin reached 660 1C in a very short time

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H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

Fig. 9. (a) Secondary electron (SE) image of non-contact pin surface after the pinon-disc test at normal load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s for 150 s in Stage II,
(b) TEM bright eld image of the cross section of the non-contact zone, FIB was
used to prepare the cross section.

(less than 300 s) after being into contact with the disc due to
thermal conduction and radiation. Although the temperature of
the pin was monitored from a position located 2 mm above the
contact zone, by comparing the morphologies of pin close to the
contact zone (Figs. 9 and 10) with our previous study [2224], the
temperature of the pin in the contact zone was probably around
700 1C. During hot rolling, the temperature of strip ranges from
800 to 1200 1C, and the ash temperature of the surface of the
work rolls can reach up to 650 1C, or even up to 700 1C due to heat
generated by plastic deformation and friction [2531]. Therefore,
the pin-on-disc tests reproduced the temperatures of hot rolling
very well. The temperature of disc was well kept at 900 1C during
the tests which led a thick oxide scale forming on the surface
(around 70 mm thick after 1 h). The pin was pre-oxidised for

nearly 20 min after being in contact with the disc before the pinon-disc test began, the contact mechanism between the pin and
disc is oxide-to-oxide, which reproduces the real contact condition in the hot strip rolling.
The testing condition of the pin-on-disc test with a normal
load 5 N and sliding speed 0.05 m/s is close to the tribological
conditions in the roll bite during hot rolling. Three stages were
identied after analysing friction coefcient curve: Stage I where
the friction coefcient decreased dramatically from around 0.4
(static contact) to 0.23 (dynamic contact) in a very short time
(less than 100 s). Stage II where the friction coefcient increased
from the minimum value (0.23) to approximately 0.29 in a short
time (about 150 s); and Stage III where the friction coefcient
remained at about 0.27 for the rest of the test. Vernge et al. [4]
reported the similar phenomenon. But, Vernge dened the period
before the friction stabilised as a running-in period. In the current
work the running-in period consists of Stages I and II, and Stage III
corresponds to the friction stabilisation period.
SEM and TEM investigations (Figs. 4 and 5) showed that a thin,
compact, and smooth glaze oxide scale around 800850 nm
formed on contact zone of the pin during the running-in period of
Stages I and II. Compared to the thickness of the oxide scale
formed at the non-contact zone (approximate 1 mm) in the period
(Fig. 9), the thickness of the oxide scale remained almost
unchanged. However, the TEM cross-section observation
(Fig. 5c) shows that the glaze oxide scale in the contact zone
has been heavily compressed and deformed, resulting a very
dense microstructure. Therefore, the phenomenon of oxides
transferring from the disc to the pin surface is supposed to occur
in this stage. The glaze oxide scale consists of iron oxides (Fe2O3
and Fe3O4), (Fe, Cr)-rich oxides and some vanadium oxides (V2O5).
It has a good adhesion to the HSS matrix, as seen in Figs. 4b and
5b, and the interface between the oxide scale and HSS matrix was
very compact and free from pores and cracks. The formation of
the glaze oxide scale protects the pin from surface wear, which
can be reected from the coefcient of friction whose value in the
running-in period was lower than the rest of the pin-on-disc test.
From the beginning of Stage I, the pin began to slide from static to
dynamic, with an oxide to oxide contact conguration. The oxide
on an HSS pin was deformed and a continuous and complete
glaze oxide scale (Fig. 4a) covered the whole contact area to act
as a solid lubricant and leading to the minimum friction. However, this protection did not last long, at the Stage II running in
period the oxide scale was spalled off due to shear stress
generated by friction, oxide scale thickening, thermal impact,
and stress growth inside the oxide scale (seen in Fig. 5c). The
contact surface became rougher due to the oxide spallation, hence
the coefcient of friction quickly increased from its minimum
value. However, there was no debris or cracks on the contact
surface of the pin at this stage.
As the test proceeded, friction between the pin and the disc
stabilised (Stage III), while the wear mechanisms became complicated. Local spallation of the oxide scale kept occurring during
the rest of the test and oxide debris generated on the wear track.
On one hand, spallation of the oxide scale may cause supercial
damage and increase the rate of oxidation on the HSS pin. On the
other hand, oxide debris on the wear track may act as free third
bodies abrading the antagonistic surfaces [32]. Vanadium MC
carbides have been rubbed off the surface due to the relative
weak binding energy between them (Fig. 7a). The adhesive nonspallation oxide scale in the contact region was around 9.5 mm
thick after 1 h pin-on-disc test, whereas the oxide scale at the
non-contact zone was only 2.8 mm thick. A much thicker nonspallation oxide in the contact region is not possible only from
oxidation by the HSS pin itself. It can be deduced that oxides
transferring from the mild carbon steel disc to the pin

H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

1317

Fig. 10. (a) Secondary electron (SE) image of pin surface morphology at the non-contact area after 1 h pin-on-disc test in Stage III, (b) TEM bright eld image of the cross
section of the non-contact area, (c) TEM/X-ray mapping of the cross section of the non-contact area.

on the disc surface, it provided further evidence that oxide

transferred from the disc to the pin. The dense, ne-grained and
equiaxed oxides (mainly Fe2O3) found in the contact zone is the
result of the combination of compression, sliding, oxidation, oxide
transfer from disc, agglomeration and sintering of wear particles
during the high temperature pin-on-disc testing. Although the
unbroken adhesive oxide seemed compact and smooth from a top
view, there were large cracks inside the oxide scale. Bonding
between the oxide scale and the HSS matrix also weakened
because cracks and pores appeared at the interface. It could be
predicted that catastrophic spalling might occur under certain
circumstances, which may be the possible mechanism for why
the banding phenomenon [20,33] occurred during hot rolling.

5. Conclusions
Fig. 11. Secondary electron (SE) image of the cross-section of oxide scale formed
on the disc surface after 1 h pin-on-disc test (outside the contact zone).

signicantly contributes to the scale thickness formed on the HSS

pin surface. Because the external oxide scale on the surface of the
HSS pin consisted mainly of iron oxides (Fe2O3 and Fe3O4), as
shown in Fig. 8, which was the same phase composition of oxide

High temperature pin-on-disc tests have been successfully

carried out to simulate the tribological behaviour of oxide scale
in the role bite during hot rolling. The evolution of the friction
coefcient during the pin-on-disc test can be divided into three
stages. Stage I and II can be summarised as the running-in period
which lasts less than 300 s from the test commencing, and Stage

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H. Zhu et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 13101318

III is the stabilisation period of friction coefcient. The interrupted

tests indicated that adhesive wear is the dominated mechanisms
of the pin in running-in period. A thin, continuous, compact and
smooth glaze oxide scale formed on the pin at the Stage I, acted
like a solid lubricant and lead to a sharp decrease in friction. At
Stage II of the running-period, oxide scale spallation occurred at
the contact zone due to shear stress generated by friction, oxide
scale growing, thermal impact, stress growth inside the oxide
scale, so the contact surface became rougher and the coefcient of
friction quickly increased from its minimum value. At Stage III the
wear mechanism on the pin becomes complicated. In addition to
oxidation on the HSS pin, the oxides transfers from the disc to the
pin which signicantly thicken the oxide scale on the pin. Large
cracks and pores can be found inside the oxide scale, indicating
that the severe banding phenomena could happen when the
oxide scale reaches a critical value. A large amount of wear debris
observed on the pin wear track conrms that abrasive wear
happens at this stage. The wear mechanism at this stage is a
mixture of adhesive, abrasion and oxidation.

Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the nancial support from The
Australian Research Council (ARC), Australia.
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