Discharge coloring technology for titanium alloy surface by using WEDM-HS

This paper describes the machining method and machining principle for the coloring technology on titanium alloy surfaces by WEDM-HS (High-speed Wire Electrical Discharge Machining). In our process, a molybdenum wire, together with a TC4 alloy sheet, were used as cathode and anode (workpiece) respectively, and the dielectric medium involved in the study was emulsion cream. We could get different colors on titanium alloy surfaces by adjusting the processing parameters. Moreover, compared with anodizing process, the WEDM-HS processing method we developed for generating colorful film titanium alloy surface in the paper is a much more simple, efficient, cheap method and has a lot of advantages in environment protection and operational safety. At the same time coloring process on titanium alloy surface will form micro pits and micro projections structure by WEDM-HS, and for reducing the surface friction will play a certain role.