Study on the tribological performance of ceramic coatings on titanium alloy surfaces obtained through microarc oxidation

Through microarc oxidation, a ceramic coating is directly formed on the surface of Ti6Al4V alloy, by which its surface property is greatly improved. Microstructure, phase composition and tribological performance of the coatings were characterized. The results showed that the coating with 10-μm thickness is compact in the inner layer and porous in the surface layer. The coating is mainly composed of rutile and anatase TiO2. The tribological behavior of the microarc oxidation ceramic coating under dry sliding against SAE52100 steel was evaluated on a ball-on-disc test rig. The Ti6Al4V alloy was characterized by adhesion wear and scuffing under dry sliding against the steel, while the polished ceramic coating experienced much abated adhesion wear and scuffing under the same testing condition. The polished ceramic coating showed good friction-reducing and fair antiwear ability in dry sliding against the steel. This is attributed to the smooth surface and rutile TiO2.