The effect of tufftriding on the rolling contact fatigue behaviour of low alloy steel cylindrical specimens

Investigations of the rolling contact fatigue behaviour of a low alloy steel are reported. Experiments were conducted on untreated and Tufftrided cylindrical specimens using Tellus 15 oil and contact stress-life curves were obtained. Both curves exhibit knee points with well-defined pitting limits. Tufftriding increases the pitting limit substantially. Wear loss studies indicated that Tufftriding leads to negligible wear loss under high contact stresses. Microhardness explorations established that strain hardening is exhibited by worked untreated specimens but no strain hardening was found with worked Tufftrided specimens. Tufftrided surfaces thus retain their original ductility and this contributes to their better performance under rolling contact fatigue conditions. © 1981.