Friction properties of graphite coating deposited on wedge-shaped textured aluminum alloys prepared by 3D printing

The underlying mechanism and influences of asymmetric surface texture on anti-friction & wear of a surface modified Al alloy under sliding friction were studied. Microstructure, hardness, wear resistance, texture of the composite modification surface were analyzed and evaluated. A flow field simulation model for wedge triangle texture was established with the Fluent finite element software. The results show that the counterclockwise wedge-shaped triangular texture has better friction and wear properties than the clock-wise. The surface texture is beneficial to the storage of lubricating oil and abrasive parti-cles, and the surface texture composite graphite coating can significantly improve the tribological properties of the substrate. The tribological mechanism of the asymmetric textured composite graphite coating is the antifriction effect of the lamellar structure of the graphite coating, and the storage of wear debris and the dynamic pressure lubrication effect of the micro-texture.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).