A comprehensive study on the fatigue properties of duplex surface treated Ti6Al4V by plasma nitriding and DLC coating

This study aims to investigate the effects of duplex surface treatment consisting of plasma nitriding and DLC coating on the fatigue properties of Ti6A4V alloy. For this investigation, Ti6Al4V samples were plasma nitrided at 650 °C, 700 °C and 750 °C for 1, 2 and 4 h and then DLC films were produced on the plasma nitrided samples. The structural, mechanical and morphological features of the samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, micro hardness tester and scratch tester. Fatigue tests were performed on the samples by using stress life method. On the surface and sub-surface of the samples, a compound layer and a diffusion zone were formed by plasma nitriding, respectively and XRD results revealed that these layers consisted of Ti2N and TiN phases. The raising process time and temperature caused to increase the thickness of these layers and they also increased the surface hardness of the samples. On the other hand, DLC coated samples exhibited more surface hardness than untreated and all the plasma nitrided samples. Fatigue analyses revealed that plasma nitriding reduced the fatigue strength of the material in all process conditions. Although plasma nitriding formed hard surface and sub-surface layers, the brittle structure of the layers and the great difference of elastic modulus between the substrate and nitride layers caused to decrease the fatigue strength of the material. Although DLC coating increased the fatigue strength of untreated and plasma nitrided samples at 650 °C for 1 h, 700 °C and 750 °C for 4 h), the fatigue strength of duplex treated samples (plasma nitrided at 650 °C for 1 h, 700 °C and 750 °C for 4 h and DLC coated) was lower than the fatigue strength of untreated material, similar to only plasma nitrided materials. This showed that the fatigue strength of duplex treated Ti6Al4V was controlled by plasma nitriding.