An Increase in the Service Life and Reliability of Machines’ Structural Components Using Innovative Engineering Solutions

The wear and formation of tribocontact surface layers are fundamental processes inherent in any friction or tribosystems. Wear and tear changes the geometric shape, mass, and dimensions of parts, and the state of their working surfaces changes, leading to a gradual decrease in the functional qualities of parts and the productivity of machines as a whole. The processes of formation and destruction of oxide coverings are often used as a basis for building models of the wear process. The data obtained in work on the structure of the surface layer, in comparison with the studies of other authors, confirm that secondary structures (SC) perform protective functions, limiting the internal interaction of friction bodies and reducing the intensity of this interaction. Therefore, their formation corresponds to the Le Chatelier principle. In secondary structures, more than 90% of all system energy is concentrated in the friction process. The surface layer is enriched with alloying elements due to their diffusion from the deep layers of the metal (thermal diffusion, upward diffusion) and the external environment. Both types of secondary structures can slow down the destruction of the surface layer in the friction pair and physicochemical transformations (formation of secondary structures in the metal), which can stimulate destruction at the boundary: “surface (textured) layer of the friction pair - deep layer of the metal”. Secondary structures of the first type have properties beyond plasticity, easily flowing over the friction surface.