Engineered surfaces with dimples working under lubricated regime are a wide open field of research, with many technological applications, especially for automotive industry. The tribological system under these conditions, lubricated dimpled surface, has been investigated and some publication regarding the understating of the phenomena that occur are already known. Dimpled surfaces for system working without lubrication, with wear occurring under dry conditions, are a new approach for friction and wear reduction.
This paper investigates dimple textured surfaces operating without lubrication. Dimples with semi spherical geometry with 100 μm of diameter and 25 μm deep were applied on surfaces of hard metal P-20. The dimples distributions over the surfaces were 50 % of the projected area of the counter body. Pin-on-Disc experiments were performed in order to provide data information over friction and wear.
The results obtained suggest that without lubrication the dimples can act as a debris deposit, allowing friction reduction and improvement of wear resistance during operation.