The service environment faced by marine equipment and its key friction pair parts are much more severe than that on land surface. The life cycle and safety of the hydraulic and power transmission system, which directly get in touch with the seawater, depends largely on the tribological behavior of the components in the seawater. Titanium alloy is an ideal material used for ocean engineering, however due to its poor friction performance its life cycle may be shortened when working in the environment with friction and wear. In order to improve the tribological performance of titanium alloy in seawater, laser processing was used to build super hydrophobic with grid and dot micro-structure on Ti6Al4V alloy surface. Tribological performance was evaluated by HSR-2M high speed reciprocating friction test machine in artificial seawater, and compared with in water (distilled water). The results show that the friction coefficients and wear losses (volume) of super hydrophobic Ti6Al4V alloy surface are significantly smaller than that of the Ti6Al4V alloy substrate. The friction coefficients of surface with dot and grid reduced by 17.8% and 11.7%, and wear losses (volume) reduced by 36.8% and 57.5% respectively in artificial seawater. The friction coefficient of super hydrophobic Ti6Al4V alloy surface in artificial seawater is smaller than that in water while the wear loss has the opposite phenomena. The tribological performances of titanium alloy in artificial seawater are significantly improved by the build of super hydrophobic Ti6Al4V alloy surface.
Fund: Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.51275064 and 50975036), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.3132014303) and Industrial Research Program of Liaoning Province (No.2012220006)