Structure and wear resistance of electron-beam nitrous coatings

The paper deals with the study of the tribological properties of nitrogen-containing austenite coatings deposited by electron-beam facing during abrasive wear and the sliding friction of a VK6 hard alloy indentor. The abrasive wear resistance of the nitrous coatings deposited by the electron-beam facing of steel 60Kh24AG16 powder in quartz sand is lower than that of the steel 65G coatings after hardening; it increases with increasing mass share of the filler. At contents of nitrided ferrovanadium of 10-30 wt % the abrasive wear rate increases by 30-50%, respectively. It is found that under a certain load applied to the VK6 ball indentor the friction coefficient and the shear resistance of the surface layer diminish. It is shown that under heavy specific loads applied to the ball indentor the nitrous coating faced from steel 60Kh24AG16 powder and composite nitrous coatings have wear resistance exceeding that of steels 110G13 and Kh18N10 by more than two and seven times, respectively. Based on the results of structural studies an explanation of the observed behavior of the nitrous coatings is proposed.