Аннотация:Wearless sliding friction in the lack of lubrication remains one of the primary goals ofscientific research, as wear greatly reduces the life of mechanical components. While ultralowwear is achievable in sliding friction with proper hydrodynamic lubrication or at microscalenormal loads, it remains a significant challenge to overcome wear at high normal loads, highsliding speeds, and in the boundary lubrication or dry sliding friction. This paper introduces anapproach to significantly mitigate wear in plain bearings operating under boundary lubricationat high normal forces and sliding speeds. The plain bearings were constructed from steel shaftstested against different materials. The surfaces of the steel shafts were alloyed with bismuthoxide using a novel high-energy short-pulse laser treatment. In order to incorporate the bismuthoxide into the surface layers of the steel, MnO2 was utilized as a carrier. Ultralow wear wasobserved for the Bi-alloyed steel disk sliding against aluminum countersurface at normal loadsup to 250 N (~5 MPa) and a sliding speed up to 9 m/s under extreme lack of lubrication.Achieving ultralow coefficient of friction and ultralow wear depends on eliminating adhesionbetween sliding surfaces, reducing the mechanical component of friction through diamondburnishing, and ensuring high fatigue endurance. The results of tribological tests demonstratean exception to the Frenkel-Kontorova-Tomlinson model for wearless friction. The test resultsfor Bi-alloyed steel–aluminum pair offer a new approach for a wide range of applications