Tribological Evaluation of an Optical Fiber Laser Marked Stainless Steel for Biomedical Applications

The effect of laser marking process on the tribological behaviour of ISO 5832-1 austenitic stainless steel (SS) on the friction coefficient and wear volume using ball-cratering wear tests was evaluated in this work. The laser marking process was carried out with a nanosecond optical fiber ytterbium laser at four different pulse frequencies. For comparison reasons, surfaces without laser treatments were also evaluated. A phosphate buffer solution (PBS) was used as lubricant. The wear tests were carried out during 10 min with PBS drip, solid spheres of AISI 316L SS with 1 in. in diameter and of 52-100 chrome steel, with 2 mm in diameter, were used as counter-bodies. The results indicated that the tribological behaviour is influenced by the laser marking process parameters used, and the wear rate is dependent of the normal force and the type of sphere.