LASER GAS ALLOYING - MANUFACTURING PROCES S FOR WEAR-RESISTANT LAYERSON TITANIUM-ALLOYS

Titanium alloys combine very high specific strength with biocompatibil ity and corrosion resistance. Because of these excellent properties th ey were frequently used in space travel, aeronautics, chemical industr y, medicine and, increasingly, automotive industry. A handicap of tita nium alloys is their low wear resistance against abrasive and sliding wear. Additional applications for titanium alloys can be established b y increasing their wear resistance, High loadable and wear resistant l ayers on titanium alloys are generated by the new method for laser gas alloying, developed at the Fraunhofer TWS Dresden. The new method ove rcomes drawbacks of conventional methodes and is a reliable process fo r industrial application. By a hard amorphous carbon layer (DLC), depo sited by Laser-Arc, an additional increase of sliding wear resistance is possible. First we briefly present the methode itself. The enormous increase of wear resistance is proven with the help of diverse wear t ests.