Cracking induced tribological behavior changes for the HVOF WC-12Co cermet coatings

Abstract

HVOF sprayed WC based cermet coatings have been widely used in industries as barriers against wear and hydrodynamic cavitation due to their high hardness and relatively high toughness. However, cracking of the coatings can occur during coating production or in service, which can reduce operational performances. It can be difficult to assess the performance impact due to cracks within the coating and as to whether the cracked coatings should be resprayed or removed from service. In this work, artificial cracks of different widths were introduced to liquid fuel HVOF sprayed WC-12Co coating through uniaxial tension of the coated steel substrate to assess the implications of such cracking. Tribological performances of the cracked coatings were examined using rubber wheel dry abrasion, ‘ball on disc’ sliding wear, and ultrasonic cavitation erosion. The results show that the crack deteriorates the abrasive wear resistance of the coating at the initial stage due to preferable mass loss at the cracks. However, after 30 min of abrasion, all the cracked coatings showed the same wear rate as compared to the non-cracked coating, with the abrasive wear resistance acting independent to the crack characteristics. Because the cracks could store wear debris and thus minimize the debris induced abrasion to the coating surface during sliding wear test, both improvement in wear resistance and reduction in coefficient of friction (COF) were detected in the cracked coatings. During the cavitation test, it was found that the mass loss of the specimen increased significantly (up to 75%)with crack width and density suggesting that the crack presence greatly deteriorated the cavitation resistance of the cermet coatings.