Structure and Properties of Silumin Surface after Vacuum Arc Plasma-Assisted Deposition of Coatings Irradiated by Low Energy High Current Pulsed Electron Beam

Abstract

The paper presents the results of modification of the silumin surface layer using a multicycle processing technique which combines the formation of the film (titanium)-substrate (silumin) system and the low energy high current pulsed electron beam (LEHCPEB) irradiation of submillisecond duration in one cycle. A KOMPLEX plasma-ion-assisted electron-beam setup (Institute of High Current Electronics SB RAS, Tomsk, Russia) is used for silumin treatment. Titanium is used as an alloying element. The thickness of the deposited film is 0.5 μm in each alloying cycle, the number of which is 1, 5 and 10. Surface alloying includes ion-bombardment cleaning and heating by hot and hollow cathodes of argon plasma discharge, with negative bias voltage supply to the specimen (initial heating up to preset temperature, surface cleaning and activation); plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of metal films (argon is used as a carrier gas); and LEHCPEB irradiation of the film (titanium)-substrate (silumin) system. It is shown that multicycle alloying of the grade АK12 silumin (G-AlSi12, DIN, Germany) with titanium leads to a dissolution of silicon and intermetallic inclusions in the surface layer up to 30 μm thick, the formation of submicro- and nanocrystalline multiphase structure with the microhardness and wear resistance, which are 1.4 and 14.2 times higher than in cast silumin.