Additive Manufacturing of Tungsten Carbide Surfaces with Extreme Wear Resistivity

Florian Köhn,Joachim Albrecht,Michael Sedlmajer,Markus Merkel

doi:10.3390/coatings11101240

Abstract

Steel surfaces have been coated with Co-based tungsten carbide (WC) in an additive printing process. This process leads to compact and extremely mechanically stable surfaces. We performed tribological measurements using WC counter bodies under dry conditions and severe mechanical load. Low coefficients of friction, even for rough surfaces, were found and the resulting wear rates were extraordinarily small, even when compared to high-quality PVD film with a similar composition. These findings suggest a wide field of application for this novel preparation process for wear-resistive surfaces.

Highlights

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a powerful way to produce parts with complex geometry without special tooling
We introduce an additive manufacturing process for the production of wear-resistive tungsten carbide coatings
The coefficients of friction (COFs) found were very similar, we found a dramatic difference in the wear rates that occurred

Summary

Introduction

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a powerful way to produce parts with complex geometry without special tooling. The L-PBF process requires, among other things, support structures during the process and heat treatment of the components post-process [7,8] Despite these challenges, many small series and prototypes show that the L-PBF process has established itself with standard materials such as AlSi10Mg or 1.2709 tool steel [9]. Typical processes that are used for machinery components and/or tools are plasma nitriding [10,11], electroplating and vacuum deposition of transition metal nitrides or carbides. Transition metal compounds such as CrN [12], TiAlN [13], MoN [14,15] and WC [16,17] exhibit outstanding resistances against wear. Friction and wear were analysed and compared to results obtained with PVD-deposited films

Experimental

Findings

Conclusions