Wear Behavior of MoS2 Lubricant Layers during Sheet Metal Forming

Abstract

The increased use of high and ultra-high strength steel and materials with a high adhesion tendency leads to higher demands regarding the wear resistance of forming tools. A promising approach addressing both challenges is to apply MoS2 dry film lubricant coating systems to the tool surface. These coatings reduce friction and the use of drawing oils and can also be used as an abherent. Once these coatings are exhausted, they can be chemically removed and reapplied. However, the tool life of the coatings cannot be predicted properly, due to their inhomogeneous wear behavior which depends on the forming parameters and differs locally. Moreover, there are carryover effects of MoS2-particles to already ablated areas. Given the unpredictability of the wear of dry film lubricant coatings, it is not possible to plan the recoating cycles appropriately and thus, the potential of these coatings for commercial applications is limited. In this research, the wear behavior of MoS2-layers in deep drawing processes was investigated on a test stand with DP800+Z coil material which ensures realistic load conditions at the draw ring radius. Firstly, the wear pattern was determined and locally different contact pressures were recorded and assigned to respective wear areas. Due to bending effects of the sheet material, there are two major areas of wear on the draw ring radius. During wear tests, the wear-dependent coating thickness during wear initiation was determined by using 3D laser scanning microscopy and the friction force was evaluated. © 2017 The Authors.