Deep Cryogenic Treatment and CrN Coating Effects on Micro-Scale Abrasion of Aluminum Alloy AA 6101-T4

The endurance of components made of aluminum and aluminum alloys is often limited by their low yield strength and by their low wear resistance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of different methods that can improve wear resistance of aluminum alloys. As a first approach, a highly wear resistant chromium nitrite layer was deposited by plasma vapor deposition on the surface of the aluminum alloy AA 6101-T4. In the second method, an ultra-deep cryogenic treatment was selected. Both methods have been previously used to improve the wear resistance of other harder substrate materials, like tool steel. To investigate the impact of the two methods on the wear resistance of such alloy, micro abrasive wear tests were carried out and an analysis based on the Archard’s law was considered. The results showed a decrease of the wear rate by 29% and 26% for the coated and for the cryogenically treated specimens, respectively, when compared to the as received material. The work also investigated the performance of three different methods (Allsopp, Double Intercept and Polynomial AT) usually considered to calculate the wear rate of coated samples. The three methods presented similar measures of wear rate for the substrate and for the coating