Surface Quality and Free Energy Evaluation of s275 Steel by Shot Blasting, Abrasive Water Jet Texturing and Laser Surface Texturing

Abstract

Surface modification by different technologies prior to joining operations or improving tribological properties is a point of great interest. Improving surface activation by increasing the roughness of the metal is a relationship that is becoming more defined. In turn, an increase in surface wettability by evaluating contact angles indicates surface activation by obtaining a high surface free energy. Technologies such as shot blasting and laser surface texturing (LST) have generated several scientific studies where they have identified the influence of parameters on the formation of rough surfaces with defined patterns. However, the application of abrasive water jet texturing (AWJT) has been little studied as an alternative. This article compares these technologies in the texturing of a carbon steel s275 in order to identify the relationship between surface quality and surface activation. It has been determined that AWJT produces the highest Rt values close to 64 µm with a cross feed of 0.45 mm and a traverse speed of 5000 mm/min. Furthermore, LST obtains the best values of free surface energy by combining a power of 20 W with a frequency of 20 kHz and a sweeping speed of 10 mm/s. Finally, contour diagrams have been obtained which relate these variables to the texturing parameters.