Investigation of the friction and wear properties of nitrided 7075-T6 aluminum alloy under vacuum and ambient air

Al7075 alloy is commonly used in the automotive industry, components of military vehicles and aircraft, rubber and plastic moulds. Also, similar Al alloys are frequently used for mechanical parts in space exploration. Therefore, investigation of the wear properties under a vacuum environment is as indispensable as wear properties under an atmosphere. However, the wear performance of this alloy cannot meet the expectations. This paper reports the investigation of the obtained wear properties of Al7075-T6 alloy after plasma nitriding in ambient air and vacuum environments. The surface characterization and phase analysis of the formed AlN layers are determined by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, 3D optical profilometer and X-ray diffractometer. The hardness of the nitride layer is established using Vickers micro-hardness tester. The wear performance of the untreated and nitride sample is investigated under 1N constant load at ambient air and vacuum environment. As a result of wear tests, the best wear performance of both conditions has been obtained from nitrided samples. The AlN layer (0.19) is observed to notably reduced the coefficient of friction of the substrate (0.60) under ambient air. Besides, it is observed that the nitride layer is better in ambient air (0.00010 mm3/Nm) than in vacuum environment (0.00087 mm3/Nm) in term of wear rate. In fact, the wear track on the nitrided sample is very thin under ambient air, and nearly imperceptible.