Effect of tin coating deposited by the RF-PCVD method on tribological properties of Ti6A14V alloy

Titanium alloys are very often used in orthopedics due to their excellent mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, titanium and titanium alloys have low wear and abrasion resistance. The relatively poor tribological properties have spurred the development of surface treatments to enhance the hardness and abrasive wear resistance. Various procedures including hard coatings, ion implantation, and thermal treatments have been suggested. The TiN-coatings are considered to be most promising in biomedical applications. In presented paper, the investigation of tribological properties of implant Ti6A14V alloy with TiN coating produced by RF-PCVD method is reported. ]'be presence of coating caused the changes in wear mechanism during friction against the chromium steel. The TiN layer protected titanium alloy from intensive adhesive wear.