Friction Stir Surfacing Route: Effective Strategy for the Enhancement of Wear Resistance of Titanium Alloy

Abstract

Titanium alloys are widely used in aerospace applications due to their properties like high strength to weight ratio, good corrosion and creep resistance. Poor wear resistance of these alloys limits their use in tribological applications. Friction surfacing technique is now recognized as an effective solution to surface engineer the light weight high strength alloys to make them suitable for general engineering applications involving wear and corrosion. The present work pertains to a study on wear resistance of surface coating of boron carbide on Ti–6Al–4V alloy using friction surfacing technique. Coating was formed by placing the boron carbide powder into the holes of predetermined depth on the surface and was characterized by metallography, electron probe micro analysis and dry sliding wear testing. The present study revealed that titanium alloy could be friction surfaced with boron carbide powder. The coating exhibited excellent wear resistance, which is attributed to the formation of strong metallurgical bond with the substrate. In the present work an attempt has also been made to compare the wear behaviour of surface composite layer on titanium alloy with that of conventionally used engineering materials such as mild steel and austenitic stainless steel. Wear data clearly revealed that wear resistance of friction stir surfaced composite layer is better than that of mild steel and stainless steel. This study demonstrated that friction stir surfacing is an effective strategy for the enhancement of wear resistance of titanium alloys.