Manufacturing of optimized technical surfaces through a process combination of stream finishing and laser ablation

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Volker Schulze
• Subject Area: Coating and Surface Technology ; Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials ; Metal-Cutting and Abrasive Manufacturing Engineering
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395790598

The aim of the research project is the design of an efficient process strategy for the process combination of laser ablation and stream finishing for the production of optimized technical surfaces with regard to component life using the example of a hydrodynamically lubricated plain bearing (bearing shaft made of the material 42CrMo4 and bearing shell made of the material 100Cr6). A high potential of the process combination of stream finishing for mechanical surface treatment and laser microstructuring for tribological optimization as an efficient post-processing process chain can be derived from the state of the art and our own preliminary work. However, the interactions between both processes and the resulting component states in the boundary layer are of elementary importance and have to be investigated. The hypothesis of increasing a bearings service life by the use of strain hardened and therefore more durable microstructures is to be verified within the scope of the planned project and the understanding of the mechanisms for the process combination is developed. For the investigations, the tribological properties of the plain bearing are of interest in addition to the surface topography, residual stress and strain hardening depth distributions in the boundary layer.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants