Improving Surface Properties of Titanium Alloys by Electrospark Deposition with Low Pulse Energy

Study of the Influence of Coating Roughness on the Properties and Wear Resistance of Electrospark Deposited Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy

“…The coatings were deposited with two and three consecutive passes of the electrode at pulse energies E = 0.02 J and E=0.04 J. Table 4 [12] shows the values of Ra parameter, thickness and microhardness of ESD coatings deposited on Ti6Al4V substrate with initial roughness Ra=1.7 µm.…”

“…-As the pulse energy (I, C, Ti) increases the amount of anode material transferred to the cathode increases [10,12,16,[22][23][24], and the thickness, roughness and microhardness of the coatings monotonically increase, but their specific values under the same ESD conditions are different for different electrodes (Tables 3-5, Figs. 1-4).…”

“…In contrast to mechanical processing, where only the influence of roughness parameters on wear can be distinguished and accounted for [17][18][19][20][21]28], in wear-resistant coatings and ESD there is a simultaneous complex influence of both roughness and changed composition, structure and properties of the coatings and differentiation of these two sides is complicated [10][11][12][13]15,[22][23][24]26,27,29]. From the obtained results (Fig.…”

“…Without special surface preparation, volume heating, by selecting appropriate electrode materials and mode parameters by ESD on the titanium surfaces, hard, wear-resistant coatings with anticorrosion, and other functional properties can be obtained [9][10][11]. ESD processing can provide significant advantages over the methods mentioned above, such as high bond strength to the substrate material, insignificant heating and absence of deformation of the coated product, simple, universal and inexpensive technology and equipment, easy operation, low material consumption, low energy and work intensity and high environmental friendliness [9,[12][13][14][15].…”

“…The influence of texture and roughness on the wear resistance of ESD coatings is too complicated to be study because the change in roughness is always accompanied by a change in the thickness, phase composition and structure of the coatings. It is widely known [10][11][12][14][15][16]22] that as the pulse energy increases, the amount of electrode material transferred to the substrate increases. The roughness, the thickness, microhardness, and the amount of wear-resistant phases in the formed layer increase accordingly.…”