Comparative Analysis of Mechanical Properties of WC-Based Cermet Coatings Sprayed by HVOF onto AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Substrates

Magnesium alloys are very interesting engineering materials due to their very high strength to density ratio (the best among metallic alloys). However, because of low hardness as well as low resistance against erosion, abrasion and corrosion, their applications in the industry is very limited. In order to improve mechanical performances, deposition of hardening coating by thermal spraying was proposed. In this work, the WC-based coatings with different binder (Co or Ni) and co-hardening additives (Cr or Cr3C2) manufactured by high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) were studied. These coatings were deposited onto AZ31 magnesium alloy. The crucial problem is obtaining good-adhered coating without damage the substrate, because of relatively low temperature resistance of magnesium alloys (about 300 degrees C). To solve this problem, HVOF method, which is low temperature and high velocity, was proposed. Also an important role plays process parameters (e.g. spray distance, fuel medium, type of nozzle). The goal of the study was to compare three types of cermet coatings manufactured from commercially available powders (WC-Co, WC-Co-Cr and WC-Cr3C2-Ni) in terms of their microstructure features, microhardness, instrumented indentation and fracture toughness. Results revealed that selected process parameters made it possible to obtain well-adhered coating with good fulfillment of the surface unevenness of the AZ31 substrate. The most noticeable effect was influence of cobalt matrix on higher hardness (1.4 - 1.6 GPa) and Young modulus (330 - 340 GPa) of deposited coatings in compare to the nickel matrix ones (1.2 GPa and 305 GPa, respectively). The same trend was observed in case of fracture toughness, c.a. 6.5 MPa.m(1/2) for Co-matrix and 4.9 MPa.m(1/2) for Ni-matrix.