Wear study of Innovative Ti-Ta alloys

In this paper a wear study of innovative Ti-Ta alloys is present. Samples of Ti-30%Ta, Ti-52%Ta, were produced by laser cladding. This technology uses a high power density generated by a laser beam to melt the base material and the filler material. The interaction between the laser and the substrate is a function of the radiation absorption properties of the material and that conditions the heat flow. Laser technology allows working with high temperatures and melting powders of titanium and the alloying elements as tantalum. As this is a continuous process enables rapid cooling of the molten material and the consequent solidification. The principal importance of these innovative alloys is the low Young's Modulus, the closest to Young's Modulus of the bone, the biocompatibility of titanium and tantalum and consequently its applicability to biomedical industry. The wear behavior is an important factor that influences the structural integrity of materials and must be studied for innovative alloys. So in this work the micro-scale abrasive wear tests were used to characterize the wear behavior of Ti-30%Ta, Ti-52%Ta alloys. The results shows that the wear volume increases linearly as the rotation of the ball test and with the sliding distance and the analysis of the ball cratering shows that for this test there just grooving abrasion and the volume wear abrasion is higher for the highest hardness alloy.