Wear Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in the Netherlands 69 AN AUTORADIOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION OF MATERIAL TRANSFER AND WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW LOAD SLIDING F. E. TALKE IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, CalijI (U.S.A.) (Received May 15, 1972) SUMMARY An experimental investigation into material transfer and wear has been performed for the case of a ferrite probe sliding at high speeds (between 25 cm/set and 1250 cm/set) and low loads (10 gm) on a steel disk, a nickel plated disk, and a polymercoated disk, the latter containing finely dispersed abrasive particles. Autoradiographic methods together with microdensitometer analysis have been applied, resulting in detailed information concerning the mechanism of transfer and its relationship with wear. Large amounts of transfer are observed, both for sliding on the steel disk and the nickel plated disk, and also for sliding on the polymer-coated abrasive disk. The latter observation seems to suggest that large amounts of material transfer are characteristic not only for sliding situations favoring adhesive wear, but also for the general case of abrasive wear caused by hard particles dispersed in a soft matrix. INTRODUCTION The understanding of material transfer and wear has been greatly enhanced by the application of radioactive tracer techniques. The main advantage of this method, it appears, is related to the high sensitivity and resolution with which radioactive particles can be detected. This, together with the easy availability of radioactive tracers by neutron activation, has made it possible to obtain detailed information concerning the nature of the wear process as well as the relationship between wear and material transfer. In some of the earliest applications of radioactive tracers, Rabinowicz’ and Rabinowicz and Tabor investigated friction and material transfer during the sliding of lubricated and unlubricated metals. Both investigators found appreciable metallic transfer, consisting, in general, of a relatively small number of large individual particles. The results showed furthermore that transfer and wear were greatly reduced, but not eliminated, if boundary lubricant films were applied to the sliding surfaces. Large amounts of transfer were also found by Kerridge3, who studied the wear of annealed tool steel against hardened steel using a pin on ring machine. Typical for the latter experiment was a very high initial transfer rate which was seen to level off after a finite time of sliding, reaching eventually an equilibrium value independent of further wear on the pin. This, as well as other experimental evidence, led Kerridge to suggest that Wear, 22 (1972) F. E. TALKE transfer is not merely present as a result of sliding, but is an important first link in a series of events resulting in the formation of loose wear particles. The important role of transfer in the wear process was likewise observed by Archard and Hirst4 in a study of mild wear of hardened tool steel ; by Kerridge and Lancasters and by Steijn6 in investigations of the sliding of brass against hard metallic surfaces; and in addition, by Hirst and Lancaster7 in a study of wear of brass on hardened tool steel. Material transfer, however, has not only been observed during the sliding of material combinations like soft/hard or hard/hard, but also during the sliding of very hard material on a much softer surface as, for instance, tungsten carbide on copper’. Based on the above experimental evidence, it seems justifiable to conclude that material transfer is indeed intimately linked with the wear process. It should be pointed out, however, that most of the above results were obtained in experiments conducted under conditions of high load (of the order of several kg) and low sliding speeds (of the order of several cmjsec). Furthermore, most of the materials investigated were metals, i.e. materials favoring adhesive wear during sliding. Although it seems likely that a similar interdependence between material transfer and wear should exist for different types of wear, or for sliding conditions of light load and high velocity, such a conclusion may not be drawn a priori on account of the apparent changes in the physical situation at the sliding interface. The investigation reported in this paper is a study of material transfer and wear under sliding conditions of light loads (of the order of 10 g) and high sliding speeds (of the order of tenths of cm/set up to 1250 cm/set). In particular, material transfer and wear have been investigated in a pin on disk machine for sliding of a spherical ferrite probe (hardness 750 kg/mm’) on a tool steel disk, a nickel plated disk of submicron plating thickness, and a polymer-coated disk containing finely dispersed abrasive alumina particles of average size of approximately one micron. Autoradiographic methods have been applied together with optical microdensitometer analysis, resulting in detailed information concerning material transfer and the mechanism of wear. Although large differences exist in the wear behavior of the ferrite probe on the metallic disks and the abrasive disk, appreciable amounts of transfer are observed for the metallic disks as well as for the abrasive disk, thus indicating that material transfer is typical not only for wear situations favoring adhesive wear, but also for certain cases of abrasive wear. EXPERIMENTAL Apparatus The investigation was carried out in a set-up similar to a classical pin on disk machine. Continuous sliding contact is established between the rotating disk, driven by a variable speed motor, and a 3.1 mm diameter spherical ferrite probe (Fig. 1). The probe is spring-loaded against the disk, which rotates in a closed environment of filtered, slightly pressurized air. The cleanliness of the test chamber is monitored continuously using a Royce particle counter capable of detecting airborne particles larger than 0.3 microns in diameter. The load, applied to the probe by a cantilever spring, is measured via high gain solid state strain gauges connected to a digital readout. Relatively soft springs were used as loading springs in order to keep load Wear,22 (1972) WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW Fig. 1. View of spring-loaded probe LOAD SLIDING 71 on disk. variations due to vertical runout Temperature and relative dependence of the experimental small range of temperature and of the disk (typically 0.05 mm) below 1%. humidity were monitored continuously ; however, no results on these parameters was noticed within the humidity fluctuations encountered. Experimental procedure The ferrite probes were irradiated prior to the experiment for 100 hours in the Union Carbide nuclear reactor at Tuxedo, New York. Although a high neutron flux density of 6.7 x 1013 neutrons/cm2/sec was used during irradiation, the level of radioactivity of the probe after irradiation was only in the low millicurie range on account of a probe weight of only 89 mg. Thus, handling of the probe during the experiment was possible without extreme health precautions or undue radiation exposure. In a typical experiment, the ferrite probe of radius a was attached to the cantilever beam by means of a special mounting bracket ; thereafter sliding was allowed to take place for prescribed conditions of load W, speed u, and time t. The total wear volume V was then calculated from optical measurement of the wear scar diameter d produced on the spherical probe, i.e. I/ = 5 [2a3- j2a2 + %j (a2 - %,‘I (1) or, since in all cases d < 2a, -.l4 vx- KU 64a * Wear volumes as small as lo- lo cm3 were found to be resolvable with the above technique, as long as the wear scar diameter d was measured under at least 200 x . It should be pointed out that in the above calculation elastic deformation of the contact zone has been neglected, since only very light loads were applied to the probe. Wear, 22 (1972) 72 F. E. TALKE Before each individual test, the probe surface was cleaned using isopropyl alcohol; furthermore, a new unworn area of the probe was exposed for each new test by rotating the probe in the holder. After all experiments were conducted, autoradiographs of the worn track areas were obtained by placing Kodak type AA X-ray film in direct contact with the disk surface and developing the image formed on the film. Exposure times of several weeks were generally employed, although it was found that autoradiographs of sufficient resolution could be obtained with appreciably shorter exposure times. To enable a ready comparison of different autoradiographs, without the need for half-lifetime or exposure corrections, all autoradiographs, including calibration autoradiographs, were exposed concurrently (25 days) and developed under identical conditions. Calibration Rapid decay of several short-lived isotopes occurs immediately following irradiation so that the activity of the ferrite probe, after a slight cooling period, is mainly due to the relatively stable isotopes Fes5, Fe”, Ni63, Ni6’, and Zn65. In particular, the radiation emitted by these isotopes is (a)X-ray radiation of Fe55, Ni5’, and Zn65 at the Mn-K-x, Co-K-x, and Cu-K-x line, respectively, (b) y-radiation of Fe5’ and Zn6’ at 0.191 MeV, 1.10 MeV, 1.14 MeV, 0.82 MeV, and 0.32 MeV, and (c) B-radiation of Fe5’ and Ni63 at 0.271 MeV, 0.462 MeV, 1.56 MeV, and 0.067 MeV. Thus, exposure of the film is caused not only by X- and y-rays, but also by b-rays. While the presence of several types of radiation is unimportant in qualitative autoradiography, it becomes important in quantitative analysis. In fact, inaccurate conclusions may result should self-absorption of P-rays be neglected in calibrating autoradiographs using samples whose dimensions are appreciably larger than those of average wear particles. That is to say, B-radiation effectively originates within a thin surface layer of a large sample, and is thus essentially a surface phenomena, whereas X-ray and y-radiation are essentially volume phenomena, relatively independent of self-absorption. Hence, relative exposure of the film, based on volume ratios, decreases for large calibration samples due to self-absorption, contrary to the case of small wear particles for which self-absorption is negligible. It is thus apparent that calibration results using large specimens are prone to errors, showing a tendency toward overestimating the amount of transferred material. In order to avoid the difficulties outlined above, calibration of the autoradiographs was obtained as follows. The radioactive ferrite probe was dissolved at 140”C in hydrochloric acid using a laboratory high pressure bomb. The resultant solution was neutralized with sodium carbonate and, subsequently, was again made slightly acidic with tartaric acid to keep the iron chloride in solution. Standard dilutions of known amounts of radioactive material were then made and distributed over areas of one square inch each. To limit the fluid from spreading further than the desired square inch areas, low surface energy barriers were painted around the boundaries of the squares prior to the application of the diluted sample. After drying, autoradiographs were obtained of these square inch areas (Fig. 2) resulting in a relationship between uncalibrated optical density and known amount of material per unit area. Although the optical density across individual squares was reasonably uniform, optical integration was performed over the square areas using the experimental set-up shown in Fig. 3. Diffuse white light is projected at an individual square after Wear.22 (1972) WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW LOAD SLIDING Fig. 2. Calibration autoradiographs. Densitometer (Optical) Fig. 3. Schematic of opticai integration set-up. 1 Background Density 1 2 3 Optical Density Fig. 4. Calibration curve : radioactive material per unit area vs. optical density. Wear, 22 (1972) 73 74 F. E. TALKE passing through a one inch square aperture. The light of intensity I is collected on a photomultiplier tube, which was calibrated prior to the experiment using standard density filters, thus establishing the desired relationship between calibrated optical density d d= -log,, if .il I,dAij and the known amount of radioactive material per unit area. The calibration curve obtained with the above procedure is shown in Fig. 4. It is clearly noticeable from this graph that optical density increases very slowly at low area1 densities of radioactive materials, whereas it increases very rapidly at area1 densities above 0.001 mg/in2 although no saturation of the film occurs. RESULTS Qualitative investigation oftransfer and wear In Fig& typical autoradiographs Fig 5. Typical autoradiographs: are shown for the steel disk, the electroplated (a) Steel disk. (b) Nickel plated disk, (c)Abrasive disk. nickel disk, and the abrasive disk, respectively, all obtained under sliding conditions of 10 g, and varying speeds and sliding times. From visual observation, it is apparent that appreciable amounts of transferred material are present on all disks, and furthermore, that the distribution of transferred material is noticeably different from disk to disk. In particular, transferred material in the case of the steel disk appears to be concentrated in relatively large discrete spots along the track (Fig. 6) while an almost uniform distribution of transfer is present for the abrasive disk (Fig. 7). The distribution of transfer for the nickel plated disk, on the other hand, appears semi-uniform with an appreciable number of small particles superimposed (Fig. 8). It seems apparent that the differences in the autoradiographs are caused by different mechanisms of wear prevailing in the different sliding situations. A similar conclusion may also be derived from a qualitative examination of the wear scars formed on the probe and the disk, or from a quantitative investigation of the probe wear rates. Wear, 22 (1972) WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW LOAD Fig. 6. Photomicrograph of autoradiograph along Fig. 7. Photomicrograph of autoradiograph along a track 75 SLIDING a track on the steel disk (100 x ). on the abrasive disk (100x). In Fig. 9(a), a typical wear scar is shown at 210 x for the ferrite probe after sliding at 250 cm/set on the nickel plated disk. It is apparent from visual observation that the wear scar is much like a metallographic etch, revealing clearly the grain structure ofthe ferrite. Microcracks and regions ofgrain pull-out are furthermore noticeable, suggesting that the mechanism of wear is seemingly one of line scale abrasion as well as one of large scale grain pull-out due to adhesion between the ferrite and the metallic surface. A similar appearance of the wear scar is also found for sliding at low speeds on the steel disk; however, a marked difference is noticeable for sliding on the abrasive disk (Fig. 9(b)). Here, a large number of finely distributed grooves exist parallel to the direction of sliding; no microcracks can be detected. The wear mechanism in this Wear,22 (1972) 76 Fig. 8. Photomicrograph F. E. TALKE of autoradiograph along a track on the nickel plated disk (100 x ). case is seemingly one of pure abrasion without large scale grain pull-out. In the absence of grain pull-out, no large fragments should exist (as was already evidenced by the autoradiographs for the abrasive disk (Fig. 7)) and it seems justifiable to conjecture that the abrasive wear mechanism proceeds on a uniformly small scale, in distinction to the above suggested two-level process in the case of the metallic disks. The last statement should not be interpreted as if the wear rate of the ferrite probe were lower for sliding on the abrasive disk than for sliding on the steel or nickel plated disk. In fact, the opposite situation prevails at low speeds, as can be observed from the plot of wear rates as a function of speed and time, shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b) for sliding on the steel and abrasive disk, respectively. That is, at low speeds the wear rates for sliding on the abrasive disk are typically higher by at least one order of magnitude than those on the steel disk; this behavior is changed only at high speeds when appreciably higher wear rates are observed for the probe sliding on the steel disk. From Fig. 10(a) and (b), it is also apparent that the probe wear rate increases nonlinearly as a function of speed and sliding time for sliding on the steel disk, while a linear increase in the wear rate as a function of time is observed in the case of the abrasive disk. Due to the generally large amount of wear occurring at high speeds. one may expect large amounts of radioactive material along a track on the disk. While autoradiographic investigation confirms this conjecture, electron microscope investigations show transfer and wear particles present only in the case of metallic disks, as shown in Fig. 11, for instance, for the steel disk. No definite signs of transferred particles are noticeable along tracks of the abrasive disk (Fig. 12) inasmuch as the abrasive disk appears unchanged during a wear test; i.e. the individual particles in the coating in Fig. 12 are alumina particles already present at the beginning of sliding. Since in the latter case a marked difference was observed in the distribution of transfer particles along the autoradiographs, as compared to that on the metallic disks, it is apparent that changing of material combinations can result in first order changes in the size and distribution of transfer particles. Wear, 22 (1972) WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW LOAD 77 SLIDING Fig. 9. (a) Typical wear scar on ferrite probe after sliding on the nickel plated disk (210 x ); (b) typical wear scar on ferrite probe after sliding on the abrasive disk (210 x }. MORONISM OF TRANSFER FOR THE ABRASIVE DISK The investigations reported in the previous section demonstrate clearly that material transfer is intimately related with the wear process. To further enhance our understanding of the situation at the sliding interface, quantitative information concerning the amount of transfer and its dependence on speed and sliding time is essential. Due to the irregular distribution of transfer particles along wear tracks of the steel disk, an estimate of transfer based on autoradiographs is iikely inaccurate, requiring the analysis of a large number of individual particles. However, in the case of the abrasive disk, for which uniform distribution of transfer was observed, a situation much Wear,22 (1972) 78 F. E. TALKE 0.4 .I r = 1250 cmlsec “E 0 -b I / / 0.3 v = 250 cmhc i : 2 0.2 B : . / I / Y = 250 cmlsec IT. 0.1 ” 1” 30 40 Sliding Time [min.] 50 J 60 1 ,<’ 0 10 , 20 I I I 30 40 50 60 Sliding Time [min.] Fig. 10. (a) Wear as a function of sliding time (ferrite probe on steel disk, 10 g load); (b) wear as a function of sliding time (ferrite probe on abrasive disk, 10 g load). Fig. 11. Electron photomicrograph along wear track on the steel disk (2750 x ). more amenable to analysis is encountered, permitting quantitative determination by means of the following straightforward procedure. First, the variation of optical density across the autoradiographic image of a wear track is determined by microdensitometer analysis. The radial density profile obtained in this way is then approximated by piecewise constant density regions of varying width wiand density di (Fig. 13). Ifthe density gradients along the circumference of the wear track are small enough to be negligible, the above approximation is clearly equivalent to the assumption that the wear track of length li is made up of a number of adjacent annular rings, each of density di, width wi, and length li, respectively. Since the functional relationship between density and the amount of radioactive material per in2 area, i.e. d=d(m), is known from the calibration curve obtained previously Wear, 22 (1972) WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW Fig. 12. Electron photomicrograph 79 LOAD SLIDING along wear track on the abrasive disk (1200 x , u= 250 cm/se@. 1 hJL 10min ie_Trackwidth Fig. 13. Typical w--*1 density 15 ’ min I I profile across track on autoradiograph. Fig. 14. Density profiles as a function of sliding time (u = 30 cmjsec, 10 g load). (Fig. 4), it now follows that the amount of radioactive material Mi contained in each annulus is given by Mi=m(di)XWiXli, (41 while the amount of radioactive material M contained in a wear track is given by 1M = Cm(di)XWiXIi. * (5) Figure 14 shows several density profiles for the abrasive disk corresponding to wear tracks obtained as a function of sliding time under conditions of 30 cm/set and 10 g. It is apparent from visual observation that well defined density maxima exist for all profiles which are nearly symmetric with respect to the center of the track. MoreWear, 22 (1972) 80 F. E. TALKE over, it can be observed that the maximum density of the profiles increases with increasing sliding time, indicating a monotonic increase in the amount of transferred material with sliding time, or equivalently, with the number of repeated passes. Using the above described procedure for calculating the amount of transferred material, we find that the amount of radioactive material increases nearly linearly with sliding time (see lower curve in Fig. 15). An even more interesting result is found, if one notes that the total amount of transferred material is, to within 40 %, identical in value with the total amount of probe wear, thus suggesting that most of the worn pin material is deposited on the disk. -- 0 10 20 Sliding 30 40 Time Fig. 15. Wear and transfer Transfer 50 60 [min.] as a function of sliding time (ferrite probe on abrasive disk, 10 g load). Similar results regarding the linearity and the amount of transfer are also observed at sliding speeds of up to 250 cm/set (center curves of Fig. 15), as well as at speeds appreciably less than 30 cm/set, although in the latter case the experimental accuracy decreases on account of the low sensitivity of the calibration curve at low optical densities. A much different situation is encountered as the sliding speed is increased to approximately 1250 cm/set (upper curves in Fig. 15). There, an increase in transfer is observed only during the initial stages of sliding; thereafter, an equilibrium situation is seen to be reached with an approximately constant level of transfer independent of the total amount of probe wear. It appears that the main cause for the observed dependence of transfer on speed is related to the wear behavior of the abrasive medium itself. That is, at low speeds the wear mechanism of the rider/disk interface seems to be mainly that of abrasive wear of the probe due to the abrasive action of the finely dispersed alumina particles; very little medium wear is present under these sliding conditions, as was evidenced by the electron micrographs of Fig. 12. At high speeds, however, wear is observed on the abrasive medium, even for the same number of traversals that resulted at low speeds in unnoticeable medium damage. Hence, it appears justifiable to speculate that at high speeds the rate at which abraded probe material is deposited in the medium equals the rate at which transferred material is removed by medium wear. This mechanism apparently causes the experimentally observed constancy of transfer after an initial sliding period. On the other hand, at low speeds, when the scale of medium wear is much decreased, transfer of material is not counter-balanced by removal and, therefore, a continuous increase of transferred material is observed. Wear,22 (1972) WEAR DURING HIGH SPEED/LOW LOAD SLIDING 81 Although the above considerations show the cause for the speed dependence of transfer, no explanation has been given as to why, in general, transfer occurs in the present wear situation. That is, one may expect large amounts of adhering particles in an adhesive wear situation as, for instance, during the sliding of metals, but not in an abrasive wear situation where one of the surfaces is a polymeric material containing hard abrasives. Yet, it appears that the presence of large amounts of transferred material is related to the specific structure of the abrasive coating. That is, although the hard abrasive particles in the coating are responsible for the abrasiveness of the medium, a large percentage of the medium consists of a soft polymeric material. Thus, little resistance may be expected from the polymer, if abraded particles are pushed into it during the repeated traversals of the probe over the same track. This then results in the experimentally observed situation of large amounts of transfer. It should be re-emphasized in support of the above suggested transfer mechanism that electron photomicrographs of worn tracks did not clearly reveal the presence of adhering particles, although autoradiographs indicated large amounts of transferred material to be present. This, therefore, seems to indicate that abraded particles are embedded in the coating rather than attached to the surface and, furthermore, that the average size of transferred particles is appreciably smaller in the present abrasive wear situation than in a typical adhesive wear situation. DISCUSSION The experiments described in this paper have shown that material transfer may be important not only during sliding at high loads and low speeds, but also during sliding at low loads and high speeds. Moreover, it was found that changes in the mechanism of wear, caused by introducing different sliding materials, may result in substantial changes in the nature of transfer. As is evidenced from the autoradiographs obtained, the most sensitive parameter in this regard is apparently related to the size and distribution of transfer particles. Although a calculation of the individual particle size is prone to error, a first approximation to the average particle size V,, may be obtained as where V is the total amount of transferred material, here assumed to be equal to the total amount of worn probe material, and n is the number of individually resolvable particles along a wear track on the autoradiograph. Clearly, this estimate for V,, is likely to be larger than the actual average size, since the total amount of transferred material could be smaller than the total amount of probe wear and, in addition, not all transfer particles can be resolved in the autoradiographs as individual transfer particles. Applying the above analysis to the nickel plated disk, we estimate the average particle size to be of the order of lo- I3 cm3. Since the smallest resolvable particles are smaller than the average particle, it is apparent that the resolution of the autoradiographic method is beyond the order of lo-l3 cm3. Comparing this estimate with predictions of other investigators, for instance, Rabinowicz,’ who indicates the order of lo- ’ 3 cm3 as the upper resolution limit for autoradiography, we see that the present results suggest a slightly higher resolution limit, seemingly caused by the long exposure times (25 days) and possibly higher radiation levels per unit volume. Wear,22 (1972) 82 F. E. TALKE Based on the previous considerations, it is apparent that the average size of the transfer particles in the case of the abrasive disk is much smaller than that found for the nickel plated disk or the steel disk. In fact, if the volume of the average wear particle is smaller by only a factor of 10 to 100, say, we find that the linear dimension of an average transfer particle, for the abrasive disk, would be as small as 1000 A. This, then, would seem to be in general agreement with our previous considerations concerning extremely small particle sizes in the case of the abrasive wear situation. It should also be pointed out that throughout this paper only results were discussed for sliding under a constant load, with speed and sliding time as parameters. Very similar results concerning the distribution of transfer particles and the appearance of the wear scars are also found if the speed is kept constant and load and sliding time are varied. Thus, it seems apparent that the basic mechanism of transfer in a given wear situation is not likely to change as a function of experimental conditions such as load and speed as long as the basic mechanism of wear remains unaltered. One last point, emerging from the experimental results obtained in this investigation, should be emphasized. This point is that the mechanism of transfer and embedding of material, suggested for the polymer-coated abrasive disk, seems to be valid not only for the particular sliding situations investigated, but also for the general case of abrasive wear caused by hard particles embedded in a soft matrix. From this viewpoint, the results of this investigation may also be taken as an indication that material transfer is typical both for adhesive wear and for abrasive wear caused by hard particles dispersed in a soft matrix. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to express his appreciation to H. Werlich for very capable help in the microdensitometer work. The electron photomicrographs were obtained by H. R. MacQueen. REFERENCES 1 E. Rabinowicz,An investigation ofsurface damageusingradioactive metals, Et-it. J. Appl. Physics, 2( 1951) 82. 2 E. Rabinowicz and D. Tabor, Metallic transfer between sliding metals: an autoradiographic study, Proc. Roy. Sot. (London), A 208 (1951) 455. 3 M. Kerridge, Metal transfer and the wear process, Proc. Phys. Sot. (London), B 68 (1955) 400. 4 J. F. Archard and W. Hirst, An examination of a mild wear process, Proc. Roy. Sot. (London), A 238 (I 957) 515. 5 M. Kerridge and J. K. Lancaster, The stages in a process of severe metallic wear, Proc. Roy. Sot. (London), A 236 (1956) 250. 6 R. P. Steijn, Sliding wear and metal transfer under unlubricated conditions, Trans. ASME, J. Basic Eng., 81 (1959) 67. 7 W. Hirst and J. K. Lancaster, The influence of speed on metallic wear, Proc. Roy. Sot. (London). A 259 (1960) 228. 8 J. Golden and G. W. Rowe, A simple apparatus for studying the wear of tungsten carbide, Wear, 1 (1957/58) 491. Wear, 22 (1972)
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