The plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) of a titanium alloy, Ti-15V-3Cr-3Sn-3Al, was performed to develop mechanical applications by improving the tribological characteristics. The behaviors of micro-arcs, bubbles, and coating growth during the PEO process were investigated under three different operating conditions, constant voltage (CV) operation, constant current operation (CC), and short treatment time (ST) operation, to control the surface structure and function by the PEO process. A low friction coefficient was achieved by CV operation at 500 V and by CC operation at 3.0 kA/m2. The maximum coating thickness of 6.88 μm was achieved by CV operation at 500 V and 60 s. From the observation of micro-arcs, bubbles, and discharge craters by ST operation, the minimum discharge diameter of the micro-arc was 8 μm, and the discharge craters had a discharge pore size of 0.3 μm in diameter in the center with a petal-shaped burr around the discharge pore. During the PEO process, no bubble bursts around the micro-arcs and no backfilling of the discharge pores by the ejected materials were observed. Thus, the discharge pores remain a porous structure in the PEO coating for Ti. The utilization efficiency of the total charge density by CV operation above 300 V was lower than that by the conventional anodization process. The utilization efficiency of total charge density by CC operation was higher than that by the conventional anodization process.
Keywords: PEO; discharge crater; discharge pore; micro-arc; plasma electrolytic oxidation; β-titanium alloy.