Tribological analysis of electrostatically developed nanocomposite-coated cutting tool material

Abstract

The nanocomposite coating has immense significance because of its high hardness and excellent oxidation resistance desired for a cutting tool. A systematic approach needs to be designed and developed to achieve high-performance nanocomposite coating to enhance the tribological and mechanical properties. Therefore, the current research attributes a distinct study of nanocomposite coating devised and deposited by the developed electrostatic spray coating technique. The microstructure and mechanical properties of electrostatically deposited YSZ, Al2O3, SiC nanocomposite coatings were assessed to study the wear behaviour. The nanocomposite coating micrographs of microstructure, wear morphology, elemental mapping and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were examined by the field emission scanning electron microscopy. Mechanical tests include the microhardness at room and elevated temperatures to perceive the interaction between coating properties and wear behaviour. The tribological tests, such as scratch and dry sliding wear tests, were performed at room temperature. Scratch test is performed to assess the critical loads of cohesive and adhesive failures of coating. The dry sliding tests were conducted using the pin on disc configuration against an uncoated and YSZ, Al2O3, SiC nanocomposite-coated tungsten carbide (pin), and the counterpart (disc) being titanium alloy (Ti–6Al–4 V). When comparing the uncoated and nanocomposite coating based on friction and wear performance, the nanocomposite coating exhibited exceptional wear resistance. Wear tracks of uncoated and coated pins were observed; the nanocomposite coating indicated minimum values of wear rates due to higher plastic deformation. The electrostatically deposited novel nanocomposite coatings performed better and the outcome is expected to be useful in various industrial applications.