Wear and corrosion behaviour of tungsten carbide based coatings with different metallic binder

Abstract

Tungsten carbide based coating has been well known as wear and corrosion resistance materials. However, less study is done on comparing the coating with different binder. Thus, in this work the wear and corrosion behaviour of high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) coatings, namely (i) tungsten carbide cobalt and (ii) tungsten carbide nickel will be evaluated. Both coatings were characterised using X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The wear behaviour has been examined using the modified grinder machine by weight loss measurement. Two types of abrasive have been used that include 3 g by weight alumina and silica. While for the corrosion behaviour, it is monitored by three electrodes of electrochemical test and immersion test for 30 days in an acidic environment. The electrolyte used was 0.5 M sulphuric acids (H2SO4). It was found that the cobalt binder shows higher wear resistance compares to the nickel binder for both slurry types. The harder alumina compared to silica results in higher wear rate with removal of carbide and binder is about the same rate. For silica abrasive, due to slightly lower hardness compared to the carbide, the wear is dominated by binder removal followed by carbide detachment. For corrosion, the nickel binder shows four times higher wear resistance compared to the cobalt binder as expected due to its natural behaviour. These finding demonstrate that the selection of coating to be used in different application in this case, wear and corrosion shall be chosen carefully to maximize the usage of the coating.