Tribological Study on Sliding Contact Between Laser Surface Textured Titanium and Aluminium Alloy Under Lubrication

The friction plays a major role whenever two surfaces come into contact. The friction is a major factor which affects the efficiency of a working component. The life of the component depends on the wear it undergoes during working. This wear is directly related to the friction that is produced between the surfaces. It is impossible to completely avoid friction. But it is possible to reduce the friction between the contact surfaces by various methods. One of the most promising methods in recent days is the laser surface texturing. There are various developments currently being done in the LST. It is done by altering the various parameters of the textures. Some of the parameters include the pattern, depth, diameter, pitch and so on. In our tribological study, a pin-on-disc tribometer is used to determine the friction and the wear between the components made of Ti-6Al-4V and AA7075 alloys under liquid lubrication condition. For improving the tribological characteristics of the contacting pairs, laser surface texturing is performed on both pin and disc surfaces. The laser surface texturing concept is implemented to create micro-dimples on the contact surface which the dimples act as a reservoir for the lubricant enhancing lubrication to reduce the coefficient of friction, the coating material to improve its bonding characteristics, wear debris to get accumulated. The desired dimple parameters are chosen for the laser surface texturing. The laser surface texturing followed by a surface treatment has improved the wear-resisting performance of the contact surfaces.