Cold welding adhesion effect

[israelkk]

We have a system where a small ball it hitting a stopper in a very small force, The ball is gold plated and hit a metal stop. We experience an adhesion effect between the ball and the stopper. Can any one point us to literature or any other source that can explain the phenomena.

 

[CdotS]

Refer to ASM handbook volume 18: Friction, lubrication and wear technology (Oct 1992).

Please mention the type of material the metal stopper is made of. Cold welding happens when there is mutual solid solubility between the interacting materials. Let us consider a simple example. Copper and nickel have 100% mutual solublity in solid state whereas lead and copper have very limited solubility. Therefore, copper and lead are less likely to cold weld in comparison to copper and nickel.

Possible solutions include:
1. Lubricate if your system design allows either with a solid or liquid lubricant
2. Change the interactiong pair (from gold to X-metal stopper to something that with poor or no mutual solid solubility). Here I assume the interation is between gold and the metal stopper but remember the gold plate might have worn away, resulting in a situation where the substrate metal is interacting tribologically with the metal stopper.
3. Have suitable coating on the metal stopper.

Best wishes

CDotS

 

[limct]

Are both parts made of ferrous base metal and were they ground and not demagnetized???

Best regards,
ct