Effect of laser surface texturing (LST) on tribological behavior of double glow plasma surface zirconizing coating on Ti6Al4V alloy

• Published in: Surface & coatings technology 2019-06, Vol.368, p.97-109
• Main Authors: Yuan, Shuo, Lin, Naiming, Zou, Jiaojuan, Liu, Zhiqi, Wang, Zhenxia, Tian, Linhai, Qin, Lin, Zhang, Hongxia, Wang, Zhihua, Tang, Bin, Wu, Yucheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dimpling; Disks; Double glow plasma surface alloying; Laser surface texturing; Lasers; Protective coatings; Texture; Texturing; Ti6Al4V alloy; Titanium base alloys; Tribological behavior; Tribology; Wear rate; Wear resistance
• ISSN: 0257-8972; 1879-3347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2019.04.038

In the present work, double glow plasma zirconizing technique combined with laser surface texturing (LST) were applied to improve the wear resistance of Ti6Al4V (TC4) alloy. A zirconium coating (Zr-coating) was firstly synthesized on TC4 alloy by double glow plasma surface zirconizing. Laser surface texturing (LST) was subsequently conducted to produce uniform dimples on the surfaces of Zr-coating and raw TC4 alloy. The dimple texture with a diameter of 300 μm and gradient densities of 5%, 7%, 11% were distributed in a square array on the surfaces of coated and uncoated TC4 alloy disks, respectively. Comparative assessments on the wear resistance of the related Zr-coating and TC4 alloy were carried out using a ball-on-disk wear tester. The results showed that the Zr-coating with a thickness of about ~50 μm, was tightly adhered to the TC4 alloy matrix. The textured specimens with a texture density of 5% revealed the lowest mass loss values in comparison to other samples, and the wear rate decreased by 20% and 26.6% compared with that of the TC4 alloy and Zr-coating without dimple texture on their surfaces. The wear rate value of the four tested samples were finally sorted in the sequence of the duplex treated TC4