IntroductionAs it is known, the method of pulsed electrospark deposition (PED) is being used to improve the service life of machine parts and instruments working under severe conditions. However, the surface roughness and friction coefficients of the PED coatings do not always meet the requirements of some applications, limiting the process applicability. Thus, PED process modification for coatings with low friction coefficients and surface roughness became important. In principle, the problem can be resolved with one of the following ways: [1][2][3] (a) use of low-energy discharge pulses, (b) deposition of thick coatings followed by their surface machining, and (c) smoothing the deposited coatings by surface finishing treatment with carbon-based electrodes. Typically, PED is carried out using hard alloy electrodes, e.g., cemented carbide alloy made of 92 wt.-% WC and 8 wt.-% Co. Comparative analysis of the coatings deposited on titanium alloys with microstructured and nanostructured WC-8% Co electrodes was reported in recent publications. [4,5] It was shown that the electrode structure strongly affects the resulting coating phase composition, structure, and tribological properties. For coatings deposited with nanostructured electrodes, the content of (Ti,W)C and W 2 C carbide phases in the coating composition was found to increase from 60 to 95%, the coating hardness increased from 5 to 8 GPa, while the friction coefficient K fr decreased from 0.7 to 0.3. Correspondingly, the service life of such coatings was found to increase by a factor of 2 to 3. Meanwhile, for some applications it is needed to further decrease K fr along with the coating endurance during the service life. In this work, we explored the effects of additional chemical reaction assisted PED (CRAPED) finishing In this work, we explored the effects of the electrode material constituents and structure on the composition, tribological properties, and roughness of electrospark deposited coatings. Nanostructured (WC grain size below 0.1 mm) and microstructured (WC grain size 1-2 mm) electrodes based on 92% WC-8% Co composition were used to produce coatings on titanium alloy substrates. Fine-pored graphite (FPG) and carbon-carbon fiber composite (CCFC) electrodes were additionally used for surface smoothing as a finishing operation. The use of the nanostructured electrodes resulted in the formation of fine-grained, hard, and wear-resistant coatings. Surface finishing treatment with graphite-containing electrodes was found to decrease friction coefficients and improve the wear resistance of coatings deposited with both nano-and microstructured electrodes. This finishing operation provided lower surface roughness, change in the phase composition of the coatings, and formation of surface graphite for solid lubrication. treatment with carbon electrodes on the phase composition, structure, surface roughness, and tribological properties of coatings deposited with micro-and nanostructured electrodes onto a titanium alloy.
Experimental PartDeposition of coati...