Surface durability of powder-forged roller treated by shot peening

To investigate the influence of shot peening on the surface durability of powder-forged rollers, the case-hardened powder-forged rollers with a forging density of 7.5 g/cm³ treated by the single shot peening and the double shot peening were fatigue-tested under a sliding-rolling contact condition. The surface roughness, the surface hardness and the surface compressive residual stress of the rollers were increased by the shot peening. In addition, the pores near the roller surface were deformed by the shot peening. The failure mode of all the test rollers was spalling due to subsurface cracking. The fatigue lives of all the test rollers were improved by the shot peening, and that of the test roller S08, which was shot-peened with the hardest steel shots in this experimental range, was especially improved. The surface durability of the test roller S08 was also most improved by the shot peening. Cracks became difficult to occur and propagate under the roller surface since the pores near the roller surface were deformed by the stronger shot peening. In this study, double shot peening, which generally restrains the increase in surface roughness, was not particularly effective for the improvement in the surface durability of the powder-forged rollers, because the influence of tangential force on fatigue was not always great in a case of subsurface cracking.