Microstructure and Friction and Wear Properties of Zn-Li-Er alloy at Different Rolling Rates

ZHANG Yuan; YANG Yuzhuo; LIU Yun; TIAN Yaqiang; CHEN Liansheng

doi:10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.19.006

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Surface Technology ›› 2025, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (19) : 63-72. DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.19.006

Friction, Wear and Lubrication

Microstructure and Friction and Wear Properties of Zn-Li-Er alloy at Different Rolling Rates

ZHANG Yuan, YANG Yuzhuo, LIU Yun^*, TIAN Yaqiang, CHEN Liansheng

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Abstract

During clinical service, medical metals are not only subject to complex stress states but also suffer from the wear-corrosion interaction under nonlinear loads, resulting in remarkable deterioration in mechanical properties, accelerated component loss, local damage, and catastrophic failure. Especially, the fine particles formed by wear and the accumulation of metal ions may easily cause the osteolysis, which seriously threatens the safety of organisms. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to develop high-performance wear-resistant medical metal materials and explore their corrosion-wear mechanisms in physiological environments.
The new Zn-Li-Er alloy was fabricated through vacuum melting. The alloy was placed in a box furnace at 320 ℃ for 2 h. The plate was hot rolled at different rolling speeds of 10 m/min, 30 m/min, and 40 m/min at a rolling temperature of 320 ℃, a rolling reduction ratio of 70%, and a single rolling thickness of 2 mm. After each pass, the rolled plate was reheated for 5 minutes. The experimental samples were cut by an electrical discharge numerical control wire cutting machine. Then, metallographic microscope (Leica Dmi8), scanning electron microscope (Phenom XL) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD, D8 ADVANCE) were used to analyze the microstructure and phase composition of zinc alloys at different rolling speeds, and keller reagent was used as a corrosion agent for optical microstructure. The tensile test of hot-rolled zinc alloy samples was carried out by tensile testing machine (UTM 5305), and the hardness data were tested by Vickers hardness tester (HV-5SPTA). The friction tests were carried out by a multifunctional material surface property tester (MFT-4000) to calculate the wear rates and observe the surface morphology, element distribution and 3D profile of the wear mark by SEM and laser confocal analyzer (3D/CLSM).
After the deformation at 30 m/min rolling rate, the medical zinc alloy showed the best wear resistance in Hank's simulated body fluid environment, and the wear rate was only 0.65×10^-3 g/(N∙m), the grain refinement degree was the highest, and the hardness was 164.96HV. The higher the material hardness, the stronger the ability to resist scratching and cutting, thereby improving its wear resistance. At the same time, high thermal energy improved the mechanical stability of the microstructure by changing the redistribution of the second phase/intermetallic compounds, leading to a decrease in the friction force, reducing the cleavage effect of the second relative matrix, and thereby reducing the wear and rupture rate of the alloy. However, when the rolling speed increased to 40 m/min, the grain sizes began to increase, forming a relatively lower density grain boundary network that was less conducive to impeding the relative motion of the friction pair, thereby deteriorating the wear resistance of the alloy.
It is found that the medical zinc alloy at a rolling rate of 30 m/min exhibits the best implantation performance, achieving a dual improvement in anti-wear ability and corrosion resistance.

Key words

medical zinc alloy / hot rolling speed / wear rate / fine grain strengthening / solution strengthening

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ZHANG Yuan, YANG Yuzhuo, LIU Yun, TIAN Yaqiang, CHEN Liansheng. Microstructure and Friction and Wear Properties of Zn-Li-Er alloy at Different Rolling Rates[J]. Surface Technology. 2025, 54(19): 63-72 https://doi.org/10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2025.19.006

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Funding

Hebei Province Central Guiding Local Science and Technology Development Fund Project (226Z1004G); Hebei Natural Science Foundation (E2024209059); Key Project of Medicine and Engineering Integration of North China University of Science and Technology (ZD-YG-202427); Basic Research Expenses of Provincial Colleges and Universities (JJC2024080)