Microstructural and tribological study of Nd:YAG laser treated titanium plates

In this work, the fretting behaviour of pure Ti plates laser treated with a Nd:YAG pulsed laser was compared to that of untreated Ti plates. Fretting tests were done at room temperature without lubrication. The contact geometry was a cylinder (bearing steel) on a plane. The evolution of both the ratio, μ=Q/P, between the normal and the tangential forces, and the Fouvry's energy criterion (A) were recorded as a function of the number of fretting cycles, N. Energy dispersive spectrometry and micro-Raman spectroscopy were used to analyse the fretting scars. The oxidized layer formed by the laser treatment displayed a mixed slip regime as a function of N, and a smaller fretting coefficient μ than the titanium reference.