Effects of Carbon Contents and Gas Type on Hardness and Wear Resistance of Ferrous Coating Fabricated by Twin Wire Arc Spray Process

Abstract

Abstract In automotive industry, thermal spray process is used to reduce engine weight by replacing cast iron liners inserted in cylinder bores. Especially, twin wire arc spray is one of widely used thermal spray processes with inexpensive cost and high deposition rate. In this study, two kinds of wire materials, low carbon steel (0.07 wt.%C) and high carbon steel (0.80 wt.%C) were deposited by twin wire arc spray process using two kinds of process gas (i.e., compressed air and nitrogen) in order to elucidate effects of carbon contents of ferrous coating and process gas type on the hardness and wear resistance of coating. In case of hardness, low carbon steel coatings had higher hardness when air was used as process gas whereas high carbon steel coatings had higher hardness when nitrogen was used, which was caused by the counter effects of carbon loss and oxide formation. The results of sliding wear test in lubricated condition indicated that coatings with higher hardness have better wear resistance and oxides improve wear resistance by playing a role as solid lubricant. The main wear mechanism was splat delamination induced by inter-splat crack, and traces of other wear behaviours such as splat tip fracture and abrasive wear were also observed.