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Enhanced Wear Resistance of Titanium Surfaces by A New Thermal Oxidation Treatment
Enhanced Wear Resistance of Titanium Surfaces by A New Thermal Oxidation Treatment
131–137
www.elsevier.comrlocaterwear
Abstract
The wear behaviour of thermal oxidation ŽTO.-treated as well as untreated Ti6Al4V alloy has been investigated using an Amsler
tribometer in rolling–sliding motion under boundary lubrication conditions. The results show that the TO treatment can significantly
enhance the wear resistance of Ti6Al4V alloy. Based on the experimental results, in conjunction with systematic analyses, the
wear-reduction mechanisms involved in the TO-treated material are discussed. It was found that the significantly reduced tendency to
adhesive wear and the improved wettability, which increases the effectiveness of lubrication, have contributed to the enhanced wear
resistance of the TO-treated material. q 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
0043-1648r00r$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 3 - 1 6 4 8 Ž 9 9 . 0 0 3 5 9 - 2
132 H. Dong, T. Bell r Wear 238 (2000) 131–137
2. Experimental
3. Results
Fig. 5. SEM micrographs of Ža. the worn surface, and Žb. the correspond-
ing Ti K a X-ray mapping of steel counterpart wheel against untreated
Fig. 3. Weight loss in lubricated rolling–sliding wear tests for untreated Ti6A14V wheel specimen, showing the material transfer from the
and TO-treated Ti6A14V wheels, together with the hardened steel coun- Ti6A14V specimen to the steel counterpart. ŽThe direction of movement
terpart for comparison. is from top to bottom..
134 H. Dong, T. Bell r Wear 238 (2000) 131–137
Fig. 7. SEM micrographs showing surface morphology of Ža. the as-TO- Fig. 8. SEM micrographs of the worn surface of TO-treated T16A14V
treated material, and Žb. short-time Ž10 4 revolutions. tested TO-treated specimen, showing Ža. general wear morphology, and Žb. typical wear
material. ŽThe direction of movement is from top to bottom.. feature. ŽThe direction of movement is from top to bottom..
H. Dong, T. Bell r Wear 238 (2000) 131–137 135
Table 1
EDS analysis results
Positions in Fig. 11 Intensity Žcounts per 100 s.
O Fe Ti Al V
A 800 20 ) 3000 ) 3000 1950
B 320 640 ) 3000 2600 800
C 120 20 ) 3000 2800 2200
4. Discusssion
cally active and have a high ductility, which gives rise to ing wear mechanism can be proposed as follows. When the
the strong tendency to adhesion ŽFig. 1.. Therefore, the TO-treated Ti6Al4V and hardened 709M40 wheels are in
adhesive strength of the junctions formed is usually much contact under load, only a very small portion of the
higher than the strength of Ti6Al4V, and such junctions nominal contacting area is really in contact. The asperities
will rupture within the weaker titanium asperities, which in contact are plastically deformed or partially removed
accounts for the many craters on the worn surface of due to the action of the counterpart. Preferential material
untreated material. Moreover, the transferred titanium be- transfer from the steel counterpart to the TO-treated wheel
comes work-hardened after the multiple contacts in the occurs at these real contact areas. With further preferential
wear couple, which in turn results in severe abrasive wear material transfer, the true contact changes gradually from
damage to the titanium surface, as is demonstrated by the steel against oxide to steel against steel, and the tangential
deep abrasive grooves ŽFig. 4.. force acting on these junctions equivalently increases due
It is generally held that a thin oxide film always exists to the higher friction coefficient for steel against steel
on a titanium surface. However, under the test conditions compared with steel against oxide. At the same time, the
employed in the present investigation, no appreciable ben- elastic energy in the transferred layer also builds up gradu-
eficial contribution of such an oxide film could be identi- ally. Eventually, these transferred agglomerates will be
fied. This is understandable in view of the thin and weak detached under the combined action of the larger tangen-
nature of the air-formed oxide film w3x. When in contact tial force and high elastic energy w17x, thus forming wear
with another metal surface, under moderate or heavy loads, debris. While most detachment of the agglomerates took
such an oxide film is easily removed from the asperities, place at the interface between the oxide and the transferred
leading to direct inter-metallic contact and, hence, severe layer, some occurred at the oxidersubstrate interface,
adhesive wear and scuffing. It can thus be concluded that which eventually forms small craters observed on the
untreated Ti6Al4V cannot be used under rubbing condi- surface of the TO-treated Ti6Ai4V wheel.
tions, even with oil lubrication, and that to be effective for From the transition in both the wear rate ŽFig. 6. and
protection against wear, an oxide film must have appropri- the morphology of the worn surface of TO-treated titanium
ate cohesive strength, good adherence to the substrate, and wheels ŽFig. 8a vs. Fig. 9., it can be deduced that the wear
strong support from the substrate. mechanism for the highly stressed TO-treated TI6Al4V
wheel is different from the low or intermediately stressed
4.2. Wear mechanism of TO-treated material TO-treated TI6Al4V wheels. Large craters were observed
on the surface of the highly stressed TO-treated TI6Al4V
The TO-treated material showed superior wear resis- wheel. Beach marks Žas shown in Fig. 10a., which are
tance to the untreated material, which implies that the wear indicative of fatigue crack growth, were observed in most
mechanism of the TO-treated material should be different craters. Thus, from a contact mechanics and fatigue theory
from that of untreated material. Inspection of the worn viewpoint, such debonding is thought to be an interfacial
surfaces of the TO-treated material tested under 300 and fatigue controlled failure process. This is because the shear
500 MPa has revealed some spots that are usually sur- stress at the interface is essentially an alternating stress and
rounded by flat relatively dark areas. It is thus constructive every cycle of the test wheel will impose this stress along
to systematically examine the worn surface further in order the interface since the contact region moves with time as
to understand the formation of these morphological fea- the test wheel rotates. Therefore, as in conventional fa-
tures and, hence, the wear mechanisms operating. A typi- tigue, cyclical stressing may lead to interfacial fatigue in
cal spot morphology, as shown in Fig. 8b, consists of three layered surface systems. Based on this interfacial fatigue
different areas Ž‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’.. Area ‘A’ represents the approach, a wear mechanism can be proposed as follows.
as-TO-treated surface morphology, as is evidenced by the Voids or micro-cracks form in the oxiderdiffusion zone
original machine marks and the fine spherical oxide. The interface due to the alternating shear stress at the interface.
corresponding EDS analysis has revealed a relatively high Further cyclical stressing leads to the propagation of mi-
oxygen peak ŽTable 1.. Area ‘B’ seems smoother and crocracks along the interface. Finally, debonded regions
darker than area ‘A’, and the corresponding EDS analysis, will detach under the action of large tangential forces.
in addition to Ti, Al, V, O peaks, showed high Fe peaks Alternatively, fatigue cracks may initiate at the existing
ŽTable 1.. This implies that ‘B’ is the real contact area, defects such as voids or subsurface cracking ŽFig. 10b.. A
which was plastically deformed andror slightly worn by similar failure model has been observed by He et al. w18x in
the steel counterpart, and that steel was transferred onto it. studies of the rolling wear of TiN coated steel.
EDS analysis in area ‘ C’ revealed a much lower oxygen
peak than in either of areas ‘ A’ or ‘ B’ ŽTable 1., 4.3. Tribological enhancing mechanism
suggesting that flaking of the oxide has occurred in this
area. The TO-treated material has shown significant improve-
Thus, for the low Ž300 MPa. and intermediate Ž500 ment in wear resistance, representing two orders of magni-
MPa. stressed TO-treated Ti6Al4V wheel, the correspond- tude in reduction in wear rate compared with untreated
H. Dong, T. Bell r Wear 238 (2000) 131–137 137
material. Although there may be many factors that have with a steel surface under boundary lubrication conditions,
contributed to the significantly enhanced wear resistance, it representing two orders of magnitude in reduction in wear
is believed that this is closely related to the tough, adherent rate compared with untreated material.
rutile oxide film formed on the TO-treated surface. Ac- Ž3. Th improved roll–sliding wear resistance of the
cordingly, the main enhancing mechanisms are likely to be TO-treated material can be attributed to the tough, adher-
two-fold. ent rutile oxide film formed on the treated surface during
Firstly, as discussed in Section 4.1, titanium has a the TO treatment. This rutile oxide layer can effectively
strong tendency to severe adhesive wear when it is in eliminate adhesive action and enhance boundary lubrica-
contact with a steel surface. According to the adhesive tion, thus giving rise to low wear rate.
theory of wear w8x, the adhesion of contact surfaces is
related to their metallurgical compatibility and deformation
behaviour. Therefore, adhesive wear should be effectively Acknowledgements
eliminated for the TO-treated surface as a consequence of
the nature of the ceramicrmetal contact. The adhesion is
The authors wish to acknowledge DTIrEPSRC for its
expected to be fairly low in view of the fact that the
support of the LINK project ‘Advanced surface engineer-
metallurgical compatibility between the oxide and steel
ing of titanium alloy components ŽAdSurfEngTi.’. We
surfaces is much lower than that between the untreated
would also like to extend many thanks to all the partners
titanium and steel surfaces. Thus, the TO-treated material
involved in the LINK project, specifically to our former
might be expected to exhibit quite a low adhesive tendency
colleague, Dr. A. Bloyce Žnow with Balzers, Tilbrook,
owing to the significantly reduced metallurgical compati-
UK. for his help and valuable discussion.
bility. Meanwhile, it has been reported that w14x the rutile
oxide layer formed during the TO treatment has a much
lower modulus Ž E . to hardness Ž H . ratio than that for the
untreated material Ž ErH: 13.8 vs. 26.9.. This significantly References
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