Abstract
Cold sprayed WC-Co metal matrix composite coatings have shown great potential in wear-resistance applications. This work aims to use experimental and numerical methods to clarify the deposition and particle–substrate bonding behavior of a single porous WC-17Co particle onto various substrates. To achieve this objective, porous WC-17Co particles were used as the feedstock; soft Al 2024 (Al alloy) and hard stainless steel 316 (SS) were used as the substrates. The experimental results revealed that brittle WC-Co particles tended to remain intact after depositing on a soft Al alloy substrate, but underwent serious fracture when impacting on a hard SS substrate. Further results indicated that the high energy dissipation and the consequent high stress concentration in the WC-Co particle was the main reason for inducing the particle fracture. In addition, two different mechanical interlocking mechanisms were identified during the WC-Co particle deposition process (namely WC reinforcement interlock and WC-Co particle interlock), dominating the particle-substrate bonding. A soft Al alloy substrate resulted in better interlocking than a hard SS substrate, thereby the corresponding particle bonding ratio was also much higher.
Highlights
WC-Co metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings have been widely used for preventing the underlying substrate materials from severe wear in aggressive environments
The stainless steel 316 (SS) substrate, due to the higher hardness, could not dissipate too much impact energy, only experiencing slight plastic deformation. This result is quite similar to the particle deposition feature as reported in Reference [6]
The deposition and coating-substrate bonding behaviors of a single WC-17Co particle onto Al 2024 and SS 316 substrates were investigated by both experiments and numerical modelling
Summary
WC-Co metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings have been widely used for preventing the underlying substrate materials from severe wear in aggressive environments. Fusion-based thermal spray technologies combined with agglomerated powders are primarily used to produce such WC-Co thin-films or coatings. During the thermal spray processes, the metallic Co matrix phase has to be completely melted upon impact to consolidate the agglomerated powders and to form the coating [1,2]. The substrate material’s fusion always brings negative effects to the WC-Co coatings, such as decarburization, phase transformation and oxidation. These shortcomings significantly deteriorate the coating’s mechanical properties and wear-resistance performance [1,2,3,4]. Investigations on cold sprayed WC-Co coatings have been conducted during past
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