Corrosion Resistance of Ti-6Al-4V Machined Surfaces Improved by Thermal Oxidation

Ti-6A-14V alloy is widely used in implants and prosthesis applications. Although machining is a fast and economical process, the roughness generated can compromise corrosion resistance. Thus, the goal of this study was to overcome this limitation using thermal oxidation in machined surfaces. Samples with polished surfaces were used for comparison purposes. Two sets of machining parameters were used to generate different roughness, property evaluated in polished and machined samples before and after thermal oxidation. Vickers microhardness and polarization tests using simulated body fluid (SBF) were also performed. Thermal oxidation generated similar microhardness for polished and machined samples, higher than for polished and non-oxidized condition. On the other hand, oxidation increased the roughness only for polished condition. The corrosion resistance was improved in all oxidized samples, and the best result was found to the intermediate roughness (Ra = 0.76 mu m), in a machined sample. The results demonstrated that thermal oxidation can be used to overcome machining limitations regarding corrosion resistance, achieving behavior even better than polished samples.