Effect of Electrochemical Treatment on Tribological Property of 316 Stainless Steel Under Grease Lubrication

To improve the tribological behavior of 316 stainless steel under grease lubrication, electrochemical tests were conducted on it to obtain a rough surface by making use of the high sensitivity of austenitic stainless steel to pitting corrosion in Cl-environment. Numerous corrosion pits on the formed rough surface acted as micro-reservoir. The grease could offer consistent lubricating, and then improve the tribological property of 316 stainless steel. Tribological behaviors of raw 316 and the treated sample were measured under sliding against GCr15 steel counterparts under dry and grease lubrication conditions.Resultsshow that the mass losses of the two samples are in the same order of magnitude, and the raw sample exhibit lower friction coefficient in dry sliding. When the tests are conducted under grease lubrication, the friction coefficients and mass losses of the treated sample are far less than those of the raw316.