
24th International Conference on Wear of Materials
April 16 – 20 April, 2023 in Banff, Alberta, Canada
Facing today’s demands on components in general industry, aerospace, automotive, machinery or medical industry, lightweight and a tailored surface might be the right answer to reduce waste in terms of wear or frictional energy losses. Under this premise, our colleagues will cross the Atlantic Ocean to present the topic “Unknown tribological possibilities – Wear resistance for light metals by PEO, hybrid, and laser functionalized surface solutions” at the WOM 2023 taking place in Canada. There, their goal will be to convince that through the combination of the high wear resistance of the PEO surfaces with polymers like doped PEEK, low friction and wear in tribological applications without additional lubricants can be achieved, leading to sustainable systems. Also, that further improvement can be done by using laser radiation for patterning and selective laser sintering of the polymer top coating.
The key points of their presentation will be:
- Extreme wear resistance for Al casting alloys was performed by Ultraceramic® PEO Technology.
- Especially in combination with novel ultra-low viscosity oil the PEO surfaces show a low and stable frictional behavior.
- For the first time DLIP technology was employed for structuring PEO surfaces (https://ceranod.de/en/project-laser-func-light/).
- Hybrid surfaces with structured PEO and applied PEEK layer led to best wear protection of counter body and lowest friction at 23°C tested in 0W8.
The ELB believes that this conference is the perfect window to trigger an increasing interest in the research society and in companies about the usage of surface solutions on lightweight metal products in order to save a lot of energy and resources. We also believe that the results presented, will be the door openers for a new world of tribological, environmental-friendly and highly wear-resistant possibilities.

Figure: resulting surfaces after dry sliding of WC against 229 alloy, a) macrographs of bare and polished PEO surfaces after dry sliding, b) topographic micrographs of the middle of the sliding traces, c) surfaces of WC balls after sliding tests.