The effect of laser surface texturing on the tribological behavior of Ti-6Al-4V

Abstract

This article reports the surface modification of Ti-6Al-4V, which is widely used for mechanical engineering applications by laser texturing in order to enhance its tribological properties. Surface patterns with three different diametered dimples were prepared for Ti-6Al-4V. Two types of oil with different viscosities were evaluated as lubricants using a pin-disc tribometer. The results show that the textured surfaces exhibit lower friction coefficients and wear compared with the untextured surface. However, as the load increases, the effect of friction reduction for all the textured surfaces decreases when lubricated with lower viscosity oil. The beneficial effects of the dimples are more pronounced at higher speeds and loads when lubricated with higher viscosity oil. The influence of dimple sizes on lubricating-regime transitions is investigated in this study, and the mechanism for friction reduction is discussed.