Abrasive wear with fine diamond particles of carbide-containing aluminum and titanium alloy surfaces

Abrasive wear testing with 3 and 30 μm diamond particles demon-strated that the wear resistance of aluminum and titanium alloys can be significantly increased by introducing tungsten carbide or titanium carbide particles into their surfaces. Carbide particles ranging in size from about 20 to 200 μm were incorporated into the surface of the alloys by a laser processing technique which can produce hardened surfaces about 0.5–3.0 mm thick. The testing showed that the wear resistance of aluminum-base alloys was improved by as much as a factor of 30 in samples containing TiC. Less dramatic improvements were found for Ti-6Al-4V containing TiC and WC, the largest improvement being by a factor of 3.8. The test results are discussed in terms of the type of carbide particle used, the volume fraction of carbide in the test samples and the microstructures of the laserprocessed surface.