Abstract
Titanium alloy is a major structural material with excellent high specific strength in aerospace applications. Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is a synthetic wear-resistant material with high hardness, similar to that of diamond, that is used in mechanical cutting and grinding. In addition, the thermal stability of cubic boron nitride particles is much better than that of diamond. In order to further enhance the wear resistance of the Ti6Al4V alloy, the laser cladding (LC) technology characteristics of metallurgical bonding were used to prepare cubic boron nitride/Ti6Al4V and Ni-plated cubic boron nitride/Ti6Al4V composite coatings on Ti6Al4V substrates in this paper. However, in the laser molten pool, it is difficult to retain the raw properties of cubic boron nitride particles under laser radiation. Both composite coatings were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The microstructures and interface bonding between cubic boron nitride particles and the Ti6Al4V matrix were examined using SEM, and the wear resistance and the worn track morphology of the composite coatings were evaluated using the ball-on-disc wear test and step profiler (WTM-2E). The results indicated that the Ni-plated cubic boron nitride/Ti6Al4V composite coating showed fewer thermal defects in comparison with the cubic boron nitride/Ti6Al4V coating. The Ni plating on the surface of cubic boron nitride particles was able to avoid the generation of thermal cracking of the cubic boron nitride particles in the composite coating. The TiN reaction layer was formed between the cubic boron nitride particles and Ti6Al4V matrix, which effectively prevented the further decomposition of the cubic boron nitride particles. The XRD and XPS results confirmed that the TiN reaction layer formed between the cubic boron nitride particles and Ti6Al4V. The Ni plating on the surface of the cubic boron nitride particles was also beneficial for increasing the wear resistance of the composite coating.
Highlights
Titanium alloy is an aerospace structural material with excellent high specific strength [1]
Despite that the content of the cubic boron nitride (cBN) particles retained in the cBN/Ti6Al4V coating was significantly higher than that of the NicBN/Ti6Al4V, some pores and lamellar cracking between the coating and the substrate were observed in the cBN/Ti6Al4V coating
On the basis of the worn tracks, we found that the Ni coated on the surface of cBN particles significantly prevented the thermal damage of cBN particles in the laser molten pool and improved the wear resistance of the NicBN/Ti6Al4V
Summary
Titanium alloy is an aerospace structural material with excellent high specific strength [1]. Coatings 2020, 10, 702 reasonable gap between the blade tip and the engine casing, preparation technology for the surface coating is used to improve the wear resistance of the titanium alloy blade tip. The coating preparation technologies that can be used to improve the wear resistance of titanium alloy materials mainly include thermal spraying, cold spraying, physical vapor deposition (PVD), micro-arc oxidation (MAO), laser cladding, electroplating, etc. The laser cladding (LC) technology characteristic of metallurgical melting improves the surface performance of related materials and guarantees the bonding strength between the coating and substrate, LC is suitable for preparing a hard particle reinforced wear-resistant coating [8]
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