Abstract
As the engine design change to get high efficiency and performance of commercial diesel engine, surface wear of the cam follower becomes an important issues as applied load increasing at the contact face between cam follower and cam. Purpose of this study is the developing of the ceramic cam follower made of silicon nitride ceramic which is more wear resistant than the cast iron and sintered cam follower. Ceramic cam follower was made by direct brazing of thin ceramic disk to steel can follower body using active bracing alloy. Effect of joining condition on the interfacial phases and joining strength wer examined at bvarious joining temperatures, times, and cooling rates. Crowning resulted from the difference of thermal expansion coefficient after direct brazing without using any stress-relieving inter layer was measured. Interfacial phases are mainly titanium silicide and titanium nitride which are the products between active metal(Ti) in brazing alloy and silicon nitiride. Maximum joining strength of the ceramic metal joint, measured by DBS method, was 334MPa. Crowning(R) of the prototype ceramic cam follower was 1595mm. As machining for crowning is not necessary, production cost can be reduced.
