Certain properties of titanium alloys such as highstrength to weight ratio, excellent corrosionresistance, biocompatibility and good formabilitymake them advantageous for the fabrication ofcomponents used in the aerospace, marine, medicaland leisure industries. However, their applications intribological conditions are limited because of theirrelatively low hardness and poor wear resistance. Toimprove the hardness and wear resistance, manysurface engineering techniques have been exploredbut because of various limitations, their industrialapplications are limited. To enhance both the strengthand wear properties simultaneously, researchers havedeveloped titanium-metal-matrix-composites (Ti-MMC). This project will investigate a new method toproduce a novel type of Ti-MMC in which areinforcement network grid of Titanium Nitride (TiN)will be fabricated on the alloy surface by lasersurface modification technique. The TiN networkgrid is metallurgically integrated into the Ti alloymatrix at the surface. TiN has significantly higherhardness, better wear resistance and strength than themonolithic Ti alloy. It is postulated that by varyingthe TiN grid density and the dimensions of the TiNtrack, the strength and wear resistance can be tailormadeand enhanced synergistically.
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