Influence of oxidation on the wear resistance of VN-10 alloy

We investigate the influence of the oxidation of VN-10 alloy of the niobium–titanium system on its tribological properties. It is shown that, in oxidation, protective, relatively dense, hard scale of complex structure and chemical composition is formed, which consists of oxides that are stoichiometrically close to Ti0.4Al0.3Nb0.3O2 and TiNb2O7 . After oxidation at an optimum temperature (673–773 K), the microhardness of the alloy increases by 25–28%. This facilitates an increase in its wear resistance under a contact pressure of 1.5 MPa under the conditions of unlubricated friction in air and after electrolytic hydrogenation: the wear of the oxidized material is smaller by an order of magnitude than that in the initial state, and the friction coefficient decreases by a factor of 5.