Roughness and microhardness of UFG Grade 4 titanium under abrasive-free ultrasonic finishing

Increasing the fatigue resistance of implants is an important scientific and technical problem. One of the solutions to this problem is the high-strength state formation due to the ultrafine-grained (UFG) structure. However, high-strength alloys are characterized by greater sensitivity to stress concentrators and the surface roughness parameter. In turn, implant designs, as a rule, imply the presence of concentrators in the form of various grooves, threaded elements, etc., and the manufacturing technology supposes mechanical processing with an ambiguous effect on a finished product surface. The application of additional surface finishing, for example, abrasive-free ultrasonic finishing (AFUF), is a solution to this problem. This work aims to study the effect of different AFUF modes on the microhardness and roughness of a cylindrical blank made of Grade 4 commercially pure titanium in the UFG state. During the study, the authors assessed the effect of the rotation frequency of a workpiece and the static force of pressing the tool against the processed workpiece on the surface parameters; carried out microstructural studies of the obtained samples. The results showed that processing titanium in the UFG state by the AFUF method leads to a significant increase in the surface microhardness and a decrease in its roughness. For example, depending on the mode, the increase in microhardness can reach from 2 to 3.5 times. The authors investigated the effect of a power level of ultrasonic treatment on roughness and microhardness and considered various variants of surface pretreatment. The study identified that an increase in the speed of rotation of a workpiece reduces the roughness of a machined workpiece, while the microhardness increases.