Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Cr3C2-NiCr Coated Ti6Al4V Implant Alloy

Abstract

Ti6Al4V alloys are widely used in medical and aerospace applications due to their superior mechanical properties. But, Ti6Al4V alloys are poor in tribological properties such as wear. Poor wear resistance consequences in the formation of wear debris in human implants and leads to inflammation and pain. In this work, Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr coatings were applied to improve the mechanical properties such as tensile strength, hardness and tribological properties such as wear resistance. Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr coatings are deposited on the substrate with 100 µm, 200 µm, 300 µm, 400 µm thickness using detonation spray (DS). Implants are generally placed inside the human body; hence, wear behavior was studied in the simulated body environment using Hank’s solution. Tensile tests are carried out with ASTM E-8 standard specimens and improvement was observed. Pin on disc wear tests have been carried out with ASTM G-99 standard specimens. Wear and surface roughness were studied using Taguchi design of experiments. Grey relational analysis was done and obtained the combined optimal factors for wear and surface roughness. Improvement was observed in hardness, surface roughness and wear resistance for the Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr coated Ti6Al4V alloy. Cite this Article M. Raja Roy, N. Ramanaiah, B. S.K. Sundara Siva Rao et al . Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Cr3C2-NiCr Coated Ti6Al4V Implant Alloy . Journal of Experimental & Applied Mechanics . 2017; 8(3): 31–45p. Keywords: Detonation sray, Ti6Al4V, surface coatings, wear, Taguchi’s orthogonal array, ANOVA