Experimental Investigation of Laser Texturing and its Effect on Friction and Lubrication

Significant effort has been undertaken to study the effects of engineered surfaces, such as those developed through laser texturing, and the potential tribological benefits that can arise. However, the theoretical models can be contradictory, and few good experimental studies of such systems exist. In this work, dimpled surfaces were created using laser surface texturing (LST) which were tested in a reciprocating wear tester. Friction and wear coefficients were measured and compared to surfaces without dimples for both metal-on-metal and metal-on-plastic contacts. The geometry of the dimple to accommodate unidirectional sliding was considered. The results showed a positive effect of surface texturing on the friction coefficients and wear rates of the textured surfaces, consistent with increased distance between asperities due to improvements in lubrication.