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Influence of Nickel-Coated Nanostructured WC-Co Powders on Microstructural and Tribological Properties of HVOF Coatings

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Abstract

In this research, a novel nickel-coated nanostructured WC-12Co powder (Ni/nc-WC) was developed and used as feedstock material for high velocity oxygen fuel process. The Ni/nc-WC powders with average WC grain size of ~15 nm were produced by mechanical milling and electroless plating processes. The microstructural and tribological characteristics of Ni/nc-WC coating were investigated and compared with those of microcrystalline WC-12Co (mc-WC) and nanostructured WC-12Co (nc-WC) coatings. X-ray diffractometry, high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used to evaluate the microstructure of the powders and coatings. A ball-on-disk technique was used to probe the wear behavior of the coatings. The Ni/nc-WC coating showed negligible decarburization of ~5.4%, while mc-WC and nc-WC coatings suffered from higher decarburization levels of 16.3 and 36.8%. The wear rate of Ni/nc-WC coating was 2.5 × 10−4 mg/m indicating ~ 75 and 82% increase in wear resistance compared with mc-WC and nc-WC coatings. The wear track analysis of mc-WC and nc-WC coatings showed evidences of delamination mechanism. Besides, a severe carbide pullout mechanism was operative in wear of nc-WC coating. As for Ni/nc-WC coating, individual carbide pullout following the elimination of Ni(Co) matrix was the predominant wear mechanism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, 84156-83111, Isfahan, Iran

    M. Jafari, M. H. Enayati, M. Salehi & S. N. Hosseini

  2. Steel Institute, Isfahan University of Technology, 84156-83111, Isfahan, Iran

    S. M. Nahvi

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea

    C. G. Park

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  1. M. Jafari
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Jafari, M., Enayati, M.H., Salehi, M. et al. Influence of Nickel-Coated Nanostructured WC-Co Powders on Microstructural and Tribological Properties of HVOF Coatings. J Therm Spray Tech 23, 1456–1469 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-014-0171-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-014-0171-5

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