Slurry abrasion response of surface engineered Ti6Al4VELI

Titanium alloys, by virtue of their outstanding combination of properties, continue to evolve as direct replacements for steels in offshore production systems to meet the challenging offshore application conditions. However, the wider use of titanium and its alloys is frequently retarded by their reputation for poor tribological behaviour. It is because of this simple engineering scenario that comparative tribological behaviour of surface engineered Ti6Al4VELI in abrasive slurry has been evaluated to identify treatments capable of improving its wear behaviour. To best simulate potential application conditions, sliding wear tests were carried out using a block-on-wheel test configuration in abrasive mud slurry. The wear volumes lost from the surface engineered Ti6Al4VELI test blocks ranged from negligibly small for substrates plasma sprayed with either WC–Co, Ni–Cr or Mo, to approximately twice that measured for a steel test block in the cases of untreated, shot peened, electroless Ni plated and anodised Ti6Al4VELI. Hard chrome plated material and thermochemically treated material demonstrated a certain degree of wear, which however, was significantly less than that found for the steel block.