Effects of combined treatment of plasma nitriding and laser surface texturing on vacuum tribological behavior of titanium alloy

This study experimentally investigated the effect of nitriding/surface texturing combined treatment on vacuum tribological properties of titanium. The titanium alloy samples were nitrided in plasma nitriding furnace. And surface textures were fabricated on the polished titanium alloy surfaces and nitrided surfaces by laser process system. The results show that plasma nitriding effectively enhances the wear resistance. However, the friction coefficient of titanium increases after nitriding. The surface texture decreases the friction coefficient of titanium. The nitriding/surface texturing combined treatment not only obviously enhances the wear resistance but also has a lower friction coefficient than the nitriding treatment. The high hardness of nitrided layer and the function of micro-trap for wear debris of surface texture results in the excellent tribological properties.