Effect of high current pulsed electron beam irradiation on wear and corrosion resistance of Ti6Al4V

The structure and properties of Ti6Al4V alloy irradiated by high current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) with various pulse number were studied in this paper. Optical Microscopy (OM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) were used to analyze the structure of irradiated layer. It is found that the phase composition transforms from α + β binary phases to single α′-Ti after HCPEB treatment and the grain size reduces to ~ 100 nm. The corrosion resistance of irradiated layers greatly improves in comparison with that of initial state. The hardness and modulus of the irradiated layer were lower than that of initial state, while wear rate of the irradiated layer does not reduce under dry sliding test.