Reducing Wear of Steel Rolling Against Ti6Al4V Operating in Vacuum

This work was motivated by a qualification test of a mechanism for a space telescope. During the test undesired wear debris was formed. In this project alterative materials and coatings were tested with intent to reduce wear and debris when steel has a misaligned rolling contact against Ti6Al4V. Testing was done using a vacuum roller rig mimicking the mechanism's contact conditions. Ten configurations were tested. Most configurations resulted in significant debris. A sputtered 1-micrometer-thick nan-ocomposite molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) film provided the best wear protection. The best configuration made use of the MoS2 coating on both materials, and in preparing for sputtering the anodized Ti6Al4V working surface was smoothed using an ultrasonic process.