Enhancing high-temperature fretting wear resistance of TC21 titanium alloys by laser cladding self-lubricating composite coatings

Fretting wear is one of the main factors restricting the fastener service reliability for the high-temperature titanium alloys. Enhancing the high-temperature fretting wear resistance of titanium alloys with laser cladding coatings is an effective method. Thus, in this work, a self-lubricating composite coating was designed and fabricated on the surface of TC21 titanium alloy with laser cladding. Special attentions were made to the effect of the fractions of the hard and self-lubricating phases on high-temperature fretting resistance. In addition, the contribution of laser cladding power was also concerned. The primary phases of the self-lubricating composite coatings are α-Co, CaF₂, WC, TiC and Cr₂₃C₆, and the reasons for the formation of TiC and Cr₂₃C₆ are investigated from a thermodynamic point. The prepared composite coatings are dense and uniform. The crystallographic characteristics and the volume fractions of the hard phases (WC, TiC and Cr₂₃C₆) and self-lubricating phase (CaF₂) were revealed, and the effect of grain size on the coating properties was analyzed. The hardness of the coatings were all maintained around 700 HV_0.2, which was significantly higher than that of the substrate. The composite coating significantly improves the friction and wear resistance at 500 ℃. The hard phase was also found to be the most resistant to friction and wear. The frictional performance of the coating gets better when the hard phase and the self-lubricating phase increase. However, the hard phase contributes more to the high-temperature friction and wear resistance than the self-lubricating phase and the wear volume is 1/40 that of substrate. For the laser cladding power, the higher power can lead to a higher fraction of CaF₂ but a lower fraction of hard phase, causing a decline in COF but an increase in wear volume. The wear mechanisms of the coating and the substrate were analyzed, the subsurface stress distribution state of the wear scars were further analyzed. The current results present new insights on the anti-wear design strategy to the composite coatings consist of hard and self-lubricating phase.