State of the Art in Laser Surface Texturing

Abstract

Surface texturing has emerged in the last decade as a viable option of surface engineering resulting in significant improvement in load capacity, wear resistance, friction coefficient etc. of tribological mechanical components. Various techniques can be employed for surface texturing but Laser Surface Texturing (LST) is probably the most advanced so far. LST produces a very large number of micro-dimples on the surface and each of these micro-dimples can serve either as a micro-hydrodynamic bearing in cases of full or mixed lubrication, a micro-reservoir for lubricant in cases of starved lubrication conditions, or a micro-trap for wear debris in either lubricated or dry sliding. The present paper reviews the current effort being made world wide on surface texturing in general and on laser surface texturing in particular. It presents the state of the art in LST and the potential of this technology in various lubricated applications like mechanical seals, piston rings and thrust bearings. The paper also describes some fundamental on going research around the world with LST.

Looking into a laser textured piston ring-liner contact

“…Following this, major work was later carried out by Etsion and co-workers, as summarised in [23,24].…”

Effects of Multi‐Scale Patterning on the Run‐In Behavior of Steel–Alumina Pairings under Lubricated Conditions

“…[16] There are various methods to manufacture artificial topographies with variable pattern parameters such as structural depth, pitch, diameter, or area density including lithographic methods, [17] embossing/coining, [18] and laser surface texturing. [19] Laser surface texturing and in particular direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) is a suitable technique to structure various materials with patterns having mm and even sub-mm features. [20] In order to modify surfaces coated with tetrahedral amorphous carbon, Roch et al used DLIP and could demonstrate an either reduced or increased COFs under dry sliding conditions depending on the pattern periodicity (varied between 2 and 10 mm).…”

Effect of Contact Configuration on the Tribological Performance of Micro-Textured AISI 1045 Steel under Oscillating Conditions

“…The former function mainly reduces third-body abrasions, and the latter lowers the coefficient of friction. Furthermore, it has been reported 1) that textured pores can act as microbearings. All of the above benefits are based on the fact that micro-dimples or micro-pores do not deform or disappear during contact.…”