Improved tribological behavior of boron implanted Ti-6Al-4V

Boron implanted of Ti6Al4V has been conducted at combinations of 32 and 40 keV to supplement that done previously at 75 keV. Shallower boron depth profiles with higher B-concentrations in the Ti64 surface have been obtained by tailoring the combinations of ion energy and dose. This work used three different ion energy and dose combinations of 4 {times} 10{sup 17} B-at/cm{sup 2} at 40 keV plus 2 {times} 10{sup 17} B-at/cm{sup 2} at 32 keV, 4 {times} 10{sup 17} B-at/cm{sup 2} at 40 keV, and 4 {times} 10{sup 17} B-at/cm{sup 2} at 32 keV plus 2 {times} 10{sup 17} B-at/cm{sup 2} at 40 keV. Comparisons are made between Ti6Al4V with a shallow implanted boron depth profile, Ti6Al4V with a deeper boron depth profile and nitrogen implanted using a plasma source ion implantation process. It has been previously shown that while boron implanted Ti64 has a {approximately} 30% higher surface hardness than nitrogen implanted Ti64, the N-implantation reduced the wear coefficient of Ti64 by 25--120x, while B-implantation reduced the wear coefficient by 6.5x or less. The results show that no significant improvement is made in the wear resistance of boron implanted Ti6Al4V by increasing the concentration of boron at the surface from approximately 10% to 43%. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area diffraction (SAD) indicated the formation of crystalline TiB in the implanted surface layer. Shallower depth profiles result in reductions of the Ti6Al4V wear coefficient by 6.5x or less which is the same result obtained earlier with the deeper boron depth profile. Surface hardness of Ti6Al4V with shallower boron depth profiles was improved approximately 10% compared to the results previously acquired with deeper boron depth profiles