Effect of h-BN Content on Tribological Properties of Laser-Cladded Titanium-Based Self-Lubricating Coatings on TC4 Surfaces
摘要
To overcome poor wear resistance of TC4 alloy, an TC4/h-BN composite self-lubricating wear-resistant coating was applied to TC4 by laser cladding. The microstructure and tribological properties of coatings with varying h-BN contents were investigated. The results demonstrate that defect-free coatings with h-BN contents of 1, 2, and 3% were successfully fabricated under optimized laser processing parameters, specifically a laser power of 1200 W and a scanning speed of 7 mm/s. The coatings consisted of reinforcing phases TiB and TiN, lubricating phase h-BN, and matrix phase α-Ti. As the h-BN content increased from 1 to 3%, the distribution of secondary phases transitioned from discrete distributions to continuous distributions along the grain boundaries, and the average microhardness of the coatings increased from 497.1 HV0.5 to 604.8 HV0.5. At room temperature, the primary wear mechanisms were abrasive wear and mild oxidative wear, and the 3% h-BN coating exhibited the lowest wear rate, which was 0.69 times that of the 2% h-BN coating. At higher temperatures of 300 °C and 600 °C, the dominant wear mechanisms involved a combination of oxidative wear and the friction-reducing performance of h-BN at high temperatures. The coating with 2% h-BN demonstrated the lowest wear rate at high temperatures, with its wear rate at 300 °C being 0.52 times that of the 1% h-BN coating. Benefiting from the friction-reducing effect of h-BN, the 2% h-BN coating exhibited the lowest friction coefficient at 600 °C, with a wear rate 0.41 times that of the 1% h-BN coating.