Thermal sprayed hard Cr3C2-NiCr coatings for wear protection

Thermal sprayed ceramic coatings play an important role in those industrial applications where exceptional erosion and wear resistance are required. In particular, nickel-chromium based coatings containing chromium carbide particles dispersion are widely used when environment temperature rises up to 800degreesC. Thick Cr3C2-NiCr coatings were produced with two thermal spray processes: Air Plasma Spray (APS) and High Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF). Two different powders have been selected as starting materials. Their dimensional and morphological properties were assessed to verify their sprayability, both in terms of flowability and deposition efficiency. For both APS and HVOF processes, most deposition parameters were selected, after preliminary spraying tests, on the basis of statistical analysis of results, in terms of coating density, hardness and substrate-coating interface quality. The tribological properties of the coatings were evaluated in order to investigate the influence of the deposition process on the behavior of coatings under wear conditions.