Bearing steels are the crucial components in engineering assembly, generally used for their good wear resistance at normal temperature. Abrasive wear is observed in bearing steels after use in harsh environment. The purpose of the present work is to examine the responses of various aero-space grade bearing steels such as 52100, 4340, 440C, M50 steel and M50-NiL steels against abrasive wear and to compare abrasive wear rates of respective steels. Microstructural features, mechanical properties and abrasive wear rate with respect to load of all these steels are determined and the deformed features of abraded surfaces are observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is noted that abrasion mechanism of harder steels is particle sliding which resulted in the abrasive wear rate proportional to load. In M50 and 52100 steel microploughing is the dominant micro-mechanism. In contrast, micro-cracking and micro-cutting are predominant micro-mechanisms of abrasion in other steels. The wear rates of various steels are compared on the basis of estimated mechanical properties.
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