Yamaha engine company has developed a new forming process

The joint research team composed of Professor Kikuchi jizhun of the Engineering Department of Shizuoka University, assistant professor jingjiri of Tokyo Electric Machinery University and Yamaha engine materials technology department has successfully developed the technology of forming a hard nitride layer on the surface of titanium alloy without heating. Titanium alloy is widely used as a structural material because of its light weight, high strength and no rust. However, in order to expand the application range of titanium alloy, the disadvantage of non wear resistance must be overcome. At present, nitrogen diffusion is mainly used to coat a layer of hard and wear-resistant film on the surface of titanium, but this method needs to heat the titanium alloy for a long time, which will lead to the coarsening of titanium structure and the reduction of strength. The development of short-time surface hardening process without heating will break through the multi-function of titanium alloy.

A hard nitride layer is formed on the surface of titanium alloy by high-speed projection of particles containing N element at room temperature and atmosphere. The processing time of this process is only about 30 seconds, but compared with the traditional method, the processing time is greatly shortened. In addition, the process can also avoid the problem of coarse microstructure of titanium alloy caused by heating in the traditional process.

The research results obtained through joint research will contribute to the development of multifunctional titanium alloy with excellent wear resistance and high strength in the future, which is expected to be used in aircraft, automobile, biological medicine and other fields in the future.