Preparation and Hardness Behavior of Al-based Amorphous/Nanocrystalline Composite Coatings on Mg alloy Prepared by High Velocity Arc Spraying Process

High velocity arc spraying (HVAS) process was used to deposit Al-Ni-Y-Co and Al-Ni-Mm-Fe amorphous/nanocrystalline composite coatings onto AZ91 Mg alloy substrate. Their microstructure was characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The coatings are both about 500 mu m in thickness with fully dense and low porosity. The microstructure of the coatings is classified into two regions, namely, a full amorphous phase region and homogeneous dispersion of fcc-Al and some intermetallic nanoscale particles in a residual amorphous matrix region. Vickers micro hardness of the coatings was also measured. The average Vickers micro hardness of Al-Ni-Y-Co and Al-Ni-Mm-Fe coating is about 311 HV and 340 HV, respectively.