Dry sliding wear behavior of TC11 alloy at 500 °C: Influence of laser surface texturing

Titanium alloys are very attractive for applications in many industrial sectors because of their unique physical, mechanical, chemical and corrosion properties. However, titanium alloys are characterized by poor tribological behavior. This study aims at revealing the mechanisms of how surface texturing affects the dry sliding wear behavior of the TC11 alloy at 500 °C. Six types of micro-textures with different diameters and area densities were produced on the surfaces of the TC11 alloy. The wear characteristics of the textured and untextured surfaces were investigated at 500 °C. It was found that the regular textured surface can enhance the amount of oxygen adsorbed, which promotes the formation of more tribo-oxides on the textured surface compared to the untextured, and thus significantly enhances the anti-wear ability of the TC11 alloy. A micro-dimpled structure with relatively small diameter and high density of dimples is likely to improve the tribological properties of TC11 alloy at 500 °C.262