Excellent tribocorrosion resistance of additively manufactured Ti-based heterogeneous composite coating via hardening and toughening effects

To improve the tribocorrosion resistance of oil drill pipes used in deep-sea drilling, a Ti-based composite coating was successfully fabricated by laser direct energy deposition technology on the TC4 titanium alloy surface. The microstructure analysis showed that a new heterogeneous structure of multistage strengthening phases (micron-sized TiN phases and nano-sized TiB phases) distributed on the β matrix (soft Cu-rich phases and hard Mo-rich phases) was formed, and the size of β grain was refined to 2 μm with the content of Cu higher than 12 wt.%. The microhardness of the composite coating was increased to more than 700 HV0.2 due to the solution strengthening of Mo elements and the formation of hard TiN phases. At the same time, the fracture toughness of 12Cu composite coating was significantly increased to 8.37 MPa·m1/2, which was attributed to the combined effect of grain refining, high-density dislocations in Cu-rich phases, and nanoscale TiB phases. The synergistic enhancement of hardness and toughness of 12Cu composite coating promoted the generation of titano-molybdenum-copper composite oxide film on the worn surface, and the tribocorrosion resistance increased more than 7 times compared with TC4.