Materials Science Forum Vol. 513

Abstract: Considered as a plague for numerous industrial assemblies, fretting associated with small oscillatory displacements is encountered in all quasi-static contacts submitted to vibrations. According to the sliding conditions, fretting cracks and/or fretting wear can be observed in the contact area. On the other hand an important development has been achieved in the domain of surface engineering during the past three decades and numerous new surface treatments and coatings are now available. Therefore there is a critical challenge to evaluate the usefulness of these new treatments and/or coatings against fretting damage. To achieve this objective, a fast fretting methodology has been developed. It consists in quantifying the palliative friction, cracking and wear responses through a very small number of fretting tests. With use of defined quantitative variables, a normalized polar fretting damage chart approach is introduced. Finally, to evaluate the performance of the assemblies after these protective surface treatments under complex fretting loadings, an original sequence of partial slip and gross slip sliding procedure has been applied. It has been demonstrated that performing of a very short sequence of gross slip fretting cycles can critically decrease the resistance of the treated surfaces against cracking failures activated under subsequent partial slip loadings.

Abstract: The paper presents investigation results of structure and functional properties of the hard wear resistant coatings obtained in the PVD and CVD processes on the Si3N4 nitride tool ceramics. Examinations of coatings structures were made using the transmission (TEM) and scanning (SEM) electron microscopes, microhardness tests, coating adhesion to the substrate with the „scratch test”, and the coatings abrasive resistance „pin-on-disc” test. Machining tests results and roughness tests results for the machined grey cast iron surface are also presented. The research carried out proved that depositing the hard, anti wear, multilayer coatings based on the Al2O3 and TiN layers onto the Si3N4 nitride tool ceramics with the PVD method results in obtaining better functional properties like extension of the cutting tool life, than in case of the uncoated nitride ceramics or coated with the PVD coatings and some CVD ones.

Abstract: γ-titanium aluminide a promising structural material for automotive and aircraft applications at high temperatures suffers from poor gas corrosion resistance. It has been proved in this work by means of microthermogravimetry and SEM, EDS, EBSD and X-Ray diffraction carried out and under isothermal conditions and thermal cycling that a great improvement of the oxidation resistance of this material can be achieved due to magnetron sputtered coatings of γ-TiAl with vatious additions (Ag, Cr, Mo, Nb, Si or Ta) or their combinations. The oxidation rate of some of these coatings is four orders of magnitude smaller than that of the bare γ-TiAl substrate.

Abstract: The 18O2 exposure-based approach was used to investigate the failure mechanisms of the oxide scales growing on alumina-forming materials. The scale spallation mechanisms and cracking processes were studied at various oxidation stages of FeCrAl alloys and β-NiAl intermetallic compound. High spatial resolution SIMS was applied to determine the distribution of the oxygen isotopes and other elements in the scales. It was found that the scales spall away according to an adhesive mode. However, t is process usually occurs at temperatures high enough to cause the reoxidation of the exposed bare substrat which results in thin oxide film on the metal. The thickness of this film and its composition depend on the alloy and the region at the interface. Spallation on reactive-element free FeCrAl alloys occurs at relatively high temperatures and the film is fairly thick, while on Zr-containing material very thin oxide layer is formed because the scale is better resistant to spalling and this process occurs at quite low temperature. The thin oxide layer formed on smooth regions comprises essentially the alumina, while the sequence of iron, chromium and aluminium oxide appears on regions exhibiting 'oxide imprints'. The applied approach enabled to find that the through-scale cracking observed at early oxidation stages of β-NiAl occurs at high temperatures and not during cooling. Formation of such cracks affects the further growth of the scale in terms of its microstructure, morphology and generation of stresses. Oxygen inward penetration through cracked scales formed during thermal cycling of FeCrAl alloys occurred mainly via oxide grain boundaries.