Abstract

In this work we investigated the friction and wear characteristics of a magnesium alloy, which has been receiving much attention as a light metal in industrial applications such as automobiles and aerospace. Magnesium is one of the lightest structural material that has high specific strength, lightweight, low density and good formability. However, current issue of using magnesium alloy is that magnesium has weakness against temperature. As the temperature increases, magnesium undergoes poor creep resistance and ease of softening, and therefore, its mechanical strength decreases sharply. To solve this issue, a new type of magnesium alloy that retains high strength at high temperature has been proposed. The tribological behavior of this alloy was investigated using a tribotester with reciprocating motion and heating plate. A stainless steel ball was used as a counter surface. Results showed that extrusion process has similar wear behavior to the commonly used casting process but retains good mechanical strength and durability. The presence of an alloying element enhanced the wear properties especially in high temperature. This study is expected to be utilized as fundamental data for the replacement of high density materials currently used in mechanical industries to a much lighter and durable heat-resistant materials.