Factors of technical ceramics influencing their mechanical properties

Abstract

Due to the excellent mechanical properties of technical ceramics, they can be widely used as mechanical components exposed to wear. In many fields, they are suitable not only for replacing metals but also for providing superior properties. During their application, many environmental (temperature, humidity) and loading factors (number of cycles, loading force) play a role in the appearance of the evolving wear formats. The present article deals with the study of the effect of loading factors, for which the measurements were performed by the fretting method at room temperature, in air with 50% relative humidity with a loading force of 2 and 5 N, and with 30.000 and 50.000 cycles. The effect of loading force and test length on the wear of silicon nitride-based ceramics was clearly demonstrated during the tests.