As an excellent light metal material, titanium alloy has an important application in high technology equipment. In this study, the composite lubrication structure was prepared on the titanium alloy surface by combining the surface texture, thermal oxidation layer, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-based lubricating coating. The effect of texture parameters and thermal oxidation layer on the fretting wear behavior of the composite lubrication structure was evaluated under a load of 50 N. The results showed that the PTFE-based lubricating coating on the textured surface showed excellent friction-reduction and anti-wear effect compared with the coating on the single smooth surface and thermal oxidation surface. The introduction of a thermal oxidation layer on the textured surface further improved the fretting wear life of lubrication coating. The friction coefficient and wear rate can be as low as 0.242 and 2.3 × 10⁻⁵ mm³·N⁻¹m⁻¹, respectively, under dry fretting contact conditions. Compared with the untextured surface, the longevity of the composite lubrication structure is extended by more than 90%.

Titanium alloys have been widely used in aerospace and other fields due to their excellent properties such as light weight and high strength. However, the extremely poor tribological properties of titanium alloys limit their applications in certain special working conditions. In order to improve the tribological properties of titanium alloys, the zirconia coatings were prepared on the surface of a TC4 titanium alloy using the discharge plasma sintering method in this article. The influence of sintering parameters on properties such as density, adhesion, hardness, and phase composition, as well as tribological properties (friction coefficient, wear rate) were investigated, and the influence mechanism of the coating structure on its mechanical and frictional properties was analyzed. The results showed that, with the increase in sintering temperature, the density, bonding strength, and hardness of the zirconia coating were significantly improved. The zirconia coating prepared at a sintering temperature of 1500 °C and a sintering time of 20 min had the lowest friction coefficient and wear rate, which are 0.33 and 6.2 × 10⁻⁸ cm³·N⁻¹·m⁻¹, respectively. Numerical analysis showed that the increase in temperature and the extension of time contributed to the extension of the diffusion distance between zirconia and titanium, thereby improving the interfacial adhesion. The influence mechanism of different sintering temperatures and sintering times on the wear performance of zirconia coatings was explained through Hertz contact theory.