Study on the Friction and Wear Properties of a newly-developed alloy for the Copper Nut in Hot Rolling Mills

Abstract To address issues such as thread wear, severe flaking, and fracture failure encountered by the copper nut in hot rolling mills during service, there is an urgent demand to develop novel high-strength and high-wear-resistance metallic materials. This paper compares the friction and wear properties of a newly developed Self-made Material with those of the currently used ZCuZn25Al6Fe3Mn3 alloy under various operating conditions. The results show that under optimal oil-lubricated conditions, the Self-made Material exhibits a 16.9% lower friction coefficient and an approximately 49.6% reduction in wear rate compared with the conventional ZCuZn25Al6Fe3Mn3 alloy. The Self-made Material demonstrates excellent tribological performance and service stability, providing an important scientific basis and experimental support for improving the service life and operational reliability of key components in hot rolling mills.