A review of the performance of engineering materials under prevalent tribological and wear situations in South African industries

The wear of materials used on machinery operating in a wide range of industrial situations such as mining, energy production and agriculture can cause serious inefficiencies, sudden breakdowns and consequential financial losses. Our work over two decades has concerned industrial problems encountered in South African industry, and laboratory simulations of abrasion, abrasion plus corrosion, adhesive wear, impact wear, cavitation, solid particle erosion and erosion plus corrosion situations have been successfully undertaken. Materials investigated include plain carbon and alloy steel, stainless steels, aluminium alloys, cast irons, tungsten carbide cermets, ceramics, polymers, composites and various surface treated and coated materials. The paper reviews the investigations carried out in our laboratories and conclusions we have made.