The Effect of Spray Distance on Porosity, Surface Roughness and Microhardness of WC-10Co-4Cr Coatings Deposited by HVOF

The paper presents the computational studies on the microstructure of WC-Co-Cr coatings deposited by High Velocity Oxy Fuel spraying (HVOF). The study covers the porosity assessment according to ASTM E2109-01 standard, carried out in ImageJ software, in terms of volume porosity, size and shape of the pores. The evaluation was preceded by scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations at magnifications of 2000x and 5000x. Additionally, topography analysis has been performed by confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), and the surface roughness Ra was evaluated by the contact method with use of a stylus profilometer. Finally, the influence of porosity was observed for coatings microhardness HV0.3. According to the results, the total closed porosity was found to be in the range of 5.01 vol.% and 5.38 vol.%. The dominated pores in the coatings were of size 0.1-1.0 μm. Studies showed that HVOF process enabled deposition of dense coatings, characterized by homogenous distribution of pores and low roughness.

Potential of Suspension Spraying for Development of Dense WC-12Co Coatings

Thermally sprayed WC-Co coatings provide excellent wear resistance and corrosion protection under heavy loads, but their application usually involves additional grinding and polishing steps, which can be 3-4 times costlier than the spraying process itself. There is thus the motivation to develop a process that produces smooth, near-net-shape carbide coatings. This contribution is an investigation of WC-12Co coatings obtained by suspension HVOF spraying. Significant work was devoted to the development and characterization of water-based hardmetal suspensions synthesized from commercially available WC and Co powders. The suspensions produced were sprayed using the HVOF process, and the resulting coatings were evaluated based on microstructure, hardness, and phase composition.

Wear resistance of HVOF sprayed NiSiCrFeB, WC-Co/NiSiCrFeB, WC-Co, and WC-Cr3C2-Ni rice harvesting blades

In this work, NiSiCrFeB, WC-Co/NiSiCrFeB, WC-Co, and WC-Cr3C2-Ni coatings were sprayed on rice harvesting blade surfaces using a high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) process. Each of the rice harvesting blades was sprayed with one of four coating materials using different spraying durations. The effects of coating materials and spraying durations on the average values of coated blade volume loss, hardness and surface roughness (Ra) were studied through real rice-harvesting field tests. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a multiple comparison approach with Tukey’s test were used in order to conduct a comparative performance analysis of the coating materials of rice harvesting blades. The experimental results indicated that the NiSiCrFeB coating exhibited the highest volume loss compared with all others. In addition, the WC-Co-coated blade had significantly greater hardness than those coated with NiSiCrFeB, WC-Co/NiSiCrFeB, or WC-Cr3C2-Ni. The rice harvesting blade coated with either WC-Co/NiSiCrFeB, WC-Co, or WC-Cr3C2-Ni using the shortest spraying duration was recommended for installation in rice harvesting machines.