A Fundamental Study of the Tribological Characteristics of Sheave Steel against a Wire Rope

In contact conditions of crane sheave steel materials against a wire rope, the contact surface of the sheave generally exhibits scuff damage. In the present study, sliding wear tests using annealed-low carbon cast steel were carried out under three kinds of normal loads calculated from the actual model conditions in a pin-on-disk grease lubrication test. The sliding speed was fixed at 220mm/s. Therefore, the wear behavior and wear mechanism and the residual stress distribution of the substrate surface were examined. The results of this study indicate that the wear rate of annealedlow carbon cast steel depends on the diameter of the wires. The wear mechanism of annealed-low carbon cast steel is characterized by fatigue and abrasive wear, but the wire shows partial adhesion due to micro abrasive wear by fatigue crack propagation. The contact distribution of residual stress is independent of sliding distance. Therefore, there are constant values on the contact surface.