Frictional Characteristics and Surface Damage of Thirty-Nine Different Elemental Metals in Sliding Contact With Iron

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the friction and surface-damage characteristics of iron in sliding contact with various elemental metals without lubrication. No simple, direct relationship was found between the value of the coefficient of sliding friction and the characteristics of the material transfer between metals. It was found that the surface-damage characteristics are related to the relative hardness of the metals in sliding contact, their mutual solubility, and their ability to form intermetallic compounds.