Fretting wear studies on uncoated, plasma nitrided and laser nitrided biomedical titanium alloys

Fretting wear resistance of uncoated and surface modified biomedical titanium alloys (Ti–6Al–7Nb) in air and Ringer fluid has been investigated in the present work. Laser nitrided specimen has shown superior performance with minimum surface damage and wear rate (<0.1 × 10−6 mm3/Nm) despite high friction coefficient in air (0.6) compared to uncoated and plasma nitrided (>12 × 10−6 mm3/Nm) specimens. This is due to presence of TiN dendrites (60–80%) in the laser nitrided layer. Plasma nitrided surface is relatively softer and hence wear rates and surface damage are comparable with uncoated alloys. Friction coefficient is high for uncoated (0.8) and plasma nitrided alloys (0.6) in air as well as Ringer fluid. Fretting induced electrochemical dissolution is responsible for higher wear rates in uncoated and plasma nitrided specimens. The fretting damage resistance is primarily governed by relative hardness and modified layer thickness of the mating components.