Influence of plasma nitriding on fretting wear behaviour of Ti–6Al–4V

Plasma nitriding was performed on Ti–6Al–4V samples at 520 °C in two environments (pure nitrogen and a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen in the ratio of 3:1) for two different time periods (4 and 18 h). Fretting wear tests were conducted on unnitrided and nitrided samples for 50,000 cycles using alumina ball counterbody. Plasma nitriding reduced the tangential force coefficient of Ti–6Al–4V. The samples nitrided for 4 h exhibited higher hardness and lower tangential force coefficient compared to the specimens nitrided for 18 h. The samples nitrided in nitrogen–hydrogen mixture environment exhibited higher hardness and lower tangential force coefficient compared to the specimens nitrided in pure nitrogen. The samples plasma nitrided in nitrogen–hydrogen mixture for 4 h exhibited the highest hardness and the lowest tangential force coefficient. The wear volume and specific wear rate of the plasma nitrided samples were lower than those of the unnitrided samples. A consistent trend was not observed regarding which nitriding condition would result in lower wear volume and specific wear rate at different loads.