Improving the abrasive wear resistance of biomass briquetting machine components using cathodic arc physical vapor deposition coatings: A comparative study

Abstract

Abrasive wear of biomass briquetting machine components, such as shedder blades, hammer blades, dies and rams, etc., is the primary limiting factor that affects the economic viability of the biomass briquetting process. In order to overcome this issue, attempts were undertaken in this work to evaluate the applicability of commercially well-established Ti-based metal nitride wear-resistant coatings to reduce abrasive wear. The TiN, TiCrN, and TiAlN coatings were deposited on D3 hard steel using the cathodic arc physical vapor deposition technique. A dry sand rubber wheel tester was used to assess the abrasive wear characteristics of the coatings and bare D3 hard steel. Coating properties, such as hardness, adhesion strength, surface roughness, and residual stress, were also evaluated. The results demonstrated that coating defects (microdroplets and pull-outs/craters), coating hardness, and elastic modulus play a major role in abrasive wear performance. The TiCrN coating has shown the highest abrasion resistance due to high H3/E2 ratio compared to other coatings. The abrasive wear mechanism of the TiAlN coating majorly followed coating spallation due to high compressive residual stress and low adhesion strength. The TiN coating exhibited the worst abrasive wear resistance among the three coatings due to localized ploughing at coating microdroplet and crater sites. Therefore, based on the results, the TiCrN coating has the potential to enhance the service life of briquetting machine components by orders of magnitude compared to uncoated ones