Project time: 2017 – 2018
Budget: 500 000 kronor
Funding: SIP Produktion2030
This project explores the possibility of replacing hard chrome coatings on steel in volume applications with the Swedish innovation, TiSurf, which is a hardened nitride surface on titanium with excellent chemical and mechanical resistance. The long-term objectives are a more sustainable and cost-effective production of environmentally friendly hybrid materials to replace cancerogenic chrome based hard coatings and to create new application opportunities and markets. Therefore, the objective of the project is to develop and evaluate possible processes for hardened nitride surface on titanium with respect to relevant material and mechanical properties, to investigate and verify its potential as a sustainable replacement material for hard chrome and in various applications, such as piston rods, axles and tubes.
Stainless steel and other chromium alloys are used extensively. However, emission of chromium and chromium acid into the environment is a serious problem, as is the formation of hexavalent chromium during welding and in other materials treatments. Hexavalent chromium is strongly cancerogenic and has recently been banned in the EU. To take environmental and health risks into consideration, and to live up to new regulations, the industry is urgently seeking sustainable alternatives to chromium in high volume applications.
TiSurf is proven to possess equivalent or better properties than chromium alloys, and it is used in space satellites, racing cars and other niche applications with high performance demands. Availability of titanium and nitrogen is essentially unlimited, and there are no indications of health or environmental risks with TiSurf. Prospects for replacing hard chrome with TiSurf are excellent. However, production processes must be developed and scaled up in order to facilitate full-scale industrial usage. Currently, the materials supplier and project partner NewSoTech produces TiSurf on massive titanium, but there are prospective ideas for applying TiSurf on steel and other materials for large volume applications. Materials experts at Linköping University, with support from NewSoTech and leading Swedish process experts and customers, will explore the technical and market perspectives of new approaches for volume production of TiSurf on, for instance, pistons rods, shafts and cylinders.
Kunskapsförmedlingen