Wear resistance improvement of a commercially pure titanium by high current pulsed electron beam treatment

A commercially pure titanium was selected as target material and treated by high current pulsed electron beam. The phase and structure changes occurring in the modified surface layers were observed with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscope. The increase in the wear resistance was observed for the pure titanium samples after pulsed electron beam surface melting. The mechanism for wear resistance modification was discussed. The results indicated that the presence of ultrafine martensite and defects in the treated surface layer were key factors for the improvement of the wear properties of pure titanium treated by high current pulsed beam treatment. (paper)