Research on the Friction Characteristics and Wear Mechanism of a Chemical Etched Surface Texture at a High Contact Pressure During Stamping

This study proposes a distinctive surface texture with flow channels prepared by a chemical etching method. The study analyzes 3D morphological characteristics and parameters of surface texture using optical microscopy and 3D laser confocal microscopy. The strip-draw frictional experiments are used to analyze the anti-friction and wear reduction properties between the die samples with surface texture prepared through different chemical etching times and sheet strips at different contact pressure conditions. After the frictional experiments, the wear scars on the textured surface of the die samples are observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to reveal the frictional mechanism. The presented study studied the friction reduction mechanism of the surface texture prepared by the chemical etching method combining the analytical investigation of the strip-draw friction experiment results and a simplified finite analysis of the fluid-structure coupling simulating model using the ABAQUS analysis software. The results show that the coefficient of friction (COF) of the surface texture mold prepared by the chemical etching method was reduced by 53.2% at a contact pressure of 72 MPa, which proves that the surface texture prepared in this approach has outstanding anti-friction and anti-wear performance at a high contact pressure condition between the die and sheet strip. The presented approach provides a low-cost and rapid surface texture preparing method to improve the wear resistance of a die by using surface texture technology at a high contact pressure condition between the die and the strip. However, further exploration of the presented chemical etching method of the surface texture will be conducted due to the surface texture manufacturing accuracy issues.