Influence of Laser Micro-texture Arrangement on Tribological Properties of Aluminum Bronze

Aluminum bronze (CuAl10Fe5Ni5) alloy, because of its good hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance strength ratio, and other properties, is often used as an important structural material for the manufacturing of bearings, bushing, bearings, gears, sealing rings, propellers, valves and other key parts of mechanical equipment, and is widely used in marine engineering, machinery manufacturing and chemical industry. With the development of science and technology, the hardness, yield ratio and wear resistance of traditional aluminum bronze can no longer meet the requirements of use under harsh working conditions. The surface is prone to severe adhesive wear and abrasive wear and failure, which greatly reduces the reliability and service life of related basic parts and limits its application. Surface texture is a surface treatment technology that can effectively improve the tribological properties of friction pairs. In this study, a single ellipse, a triangle and a mixture of two shapes were processed on the surface of a CuAl10Fe5Ni5 substrate by laser processing, and the effects of linear and staggered arrangements on the tribological and wear properties of the textured CuAl10Fe5Ni5 surface under dry friction and oil lubrication were investigated. The anti-wear mechanism of the textured CuAl10Fe5Ni5 material under dry friction and oil lubrication was investigated. The test results showed that under oil lubrication, because the texture functions to store the lubricating medium, the textured surface could replenish the lubricating medium and fully lubricate the friction interface. Compared with the substrate surface, the textured surface had a remarkable lubrication and wear resistance effect. A staggered arrangement under oil lubrication could improve the bearing capacity of the material surface and reduce the friction and wear of the material surface. Compared with the single ellipse and triangle texture arrangements, the use of the ellipse triangle texture for the staggered arrangement had a synergistic effect on the different shape textures and improved the wear resistance. Under dry friction conditions, the textured CuAl10Fe5Ni5 had certain anti-friction and wear resistance effects compared with those of the substrate due to its chip tolerance. A linear arrangement could reduce the friction resistance of the material surface and thus reduce the friction coefficient of the textured surface, while a staggered arrangement could capture more debris reducing the wear of the contact area caused by small debris, and improve the wear resistance of the material surface. The staggered triangular texture had the best wear reduction effect, and the wear rate was reduced by 34.1%. The friction and wear performance of CuAl10Fe5Ni5 could be improved by the reasonable design and synergy of different shapes and different arrangements. The results could provide a theoretical reference for improving the design of surface lubrication and anti-wear properties of textured aluminum bronze materials.