Surface modification of titanium alloy with laser synthesised ceramics reinforced composite coating

Abstract

The synthesis of the hard composite coating reinforced with TiB₂–TiC on titanium alloy using laser surface engineering has been investigated in detail. A composite coating with metallurgical joint to the substrate was formed. This composite coating mainly consisted of γ-(Fe, Ni), Fe₃Al, Al₃Ti, TiC, TiB₂, Cr₇C₃ and TiNi. Microstructure of this composite coating revealed microsized blocky precipitates and submicrometre sized sperical precipitates. Compared with the titanium alloy substrate, an improvement of the microhardness and the wear resistance was obtained for this composite coating.

Keywords:

• Surface properties
• Surface modification
• Wear
• Composites

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported through the Science Foundation for Excellent Young Scientist of Shandong Province, China (grant no. BS2011CL027). And Professor T. Zhai of University of Kentucky (USA) is gratefully acknowledged for the help of testing and microstructural discussions.