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Fabrication and Tribological Evaluation of Vacuum Plasma-Sprayed B4C Coating

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Abstract

B4C coating was fabricated by vacuum plasma spraying and the tribological properties of the coating against WC-Co alloy were evaluated by sliding wear tests. Al2O3 coating, one of the most commonly used wear-resistant coatings, was employed as comparison in the tribological evaluation. The results obtained show that, the B4C coating is composed of a large amount of nanostructured particles along with some amorphous phases. Both of the friction coefficient and wear rate of the B4C coating are much lower than those of the Al2O3 coating, and the tribological evaluation reveals a decreasing trend for the B4C coating in friction coefficient as well as wear rate with increasing normal load, which is explained in terms of the formation of a protective transfer layer on its worn surface. Tribofilm wear is found to be the dominant wear mechanism involved in the B4C/WC-Co alloy friction pair.

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (for Young Scholar) of China under grant 51102267, Shanghai Science and Technology R&D Fund under grant 11ZR1442100, Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Inorganic Coating Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Inorganic Coating Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Huiying Zhu, Yaran Niu, Chucheng Lin, Liping Huang, Heng Ji & Xuebin Zheng

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  1. Huiying Zhu
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  2. Yaran Niu
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  3. Chucheng Lin
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  4. Liping Huang
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  5. Heng Ji
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  6. Xuebin Zheng
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Correspondence to Xuebin Zheng.

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Zhu, H., Niu, Y., Lin, C. et al. Fabrication and Tribological Evaluation of Vacuum Plasma-Sprayed B4C Coating. J Therm Spray Tech 21, 1216–1223 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-012-9815-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-012-9815-5

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