Wear behavior of Ni-P and Al2O3 electroless nano coating on aluminium alloy

Abstract

Electroless Nickel (ENi-P) is the major evolving surface coating technique employed in today’s industries. This covering is the decision for some design applications with different actual attributes of EN coatings, for example, hardness, wears opposition, covering consistency and erosion obstruction. The major advantages of ENi-P and Al2O3 coatings are uniform coating thickness, improved wear and corrosion resistance, hardness, ability to deposit on surface activated non conductors etc. Typical anionic surfactant and various passive chemical additives and nano additives such as Al2O3 were added to the EN bath. Coating was carried out on Al LM6 alloy specimens. In this research work, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) surfactant along with nano additives such as Al2O3 was added to the ENi-P bath. The effect of surfactant along with nano additives on surface properties such as corrosion resistance, wear properties, surface roughness, micro hardness and microstructure of electroless nickel-phosphorus and Aluminum oxide coating was investigated. The surface roughness of the coated specimens was measured using stylus instrument, microhardness was measured using vicker’s hardness tester, microstructure was studied using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and wear test was measured using Pin on disc machine. The result obtained from the above tests clearly indicates that the surfactant and passive additives improves the surface finish, microhardness, and microstructure and wear rate of ENi-P and Al2O3 coatings significantly.