Fretting wear and fretting fatigue behaviors of diamond-like carbon and graphite-like carbon films deposited on Ti-6Al-4V alloy

To investigate their effect on the fretting wear (FW) and fretting fatigue (FF) resistance of a Ti6Al4V alloy, the diamond-like carbon (DLC) and graphite-like carbon (GLC) films were deposited on a Ti6Al4V alloy substrate using closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The basic film properties, such as surface morphology, micro-structure, micro-hardness, bonding strength, and toughness were investigated by atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelecton spectroscopy, nano-hardness testing, scratch testing and by a home-made repeated press-press test system, respectively. The FW and FF resistance was studied using home-made devices. The results show that DLC and GLC films can reduce the friction factor while the FW and FF resistance of the titanium alloy were improved significantly. However, the FW and FF resistance of the DLC film on the titanium alloy was better than that of the GLC film. This was attributed to the excellent properties of bonding strength and toughness of the DLC film. Moreover, the effect of bonding strength and toughness is more important than that of friction factor in improving the FW and FF resistance.