Effect of laser surface texturing on wear resistance of nickel based superalloy

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of laser surface texturing (LST) on the wear behavior of C-263 nickel-based superalloy and to identify the optimum wear operating condition. Design/methodology/approach C-263 nickel-based superalloy was selected as substrate material and pico-second Nd-YAG laser was used to fabricate the waviness groove texture on their surface. Wear experiments were designed based on Box-Bhenken design with three factors of sliding velocity, sliding distance and applied load. Wear experiments were performed using pin on disc tribometer. Morphologies of textures and worn-out surfaces were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Surface topographies and surface roughness of the textures were evaluated by weight light interferometry. The response surface methodology was adopted to identify the optimum wear operating condition and ANOVA to identify the significant factors. Findings LST improves the wear resistance of C-263 nickel-based superalloy by appeoximately 82 per cent. Higher wear rate occurs at maximum values of all operating conditions, and applied load affects the coefficient of friction. Applied load significantly affects the wear rate of un-textured specimen. The interaction of sliding velocity and applied load also affects the wear rate of textured specimens. The optimum parameters to get minimum wear rate for un-textured specimens are 1.5 m/s sliding velocity, 725 m sliding distance and 31 N of applied load. For textured specimens, the optimum values are 1.5 m/s sliding distance, 500 m sliding distance and 40 N of the applied load. Originality/value Literature on laser texturing on nickel-based superalloy is very scarce. Specifically, the effect of laser texturing on wear behavior of the nickel-based superalloy C-263 alloy is not yet reported.