Erosion Wear Response of Glass Microsphere Coatings: Parametric Appraisal and Prediction Using Taguchi Method and Neural Computation

This article presents an analysis of the erosion wear response of borosilicate glass microsphere (BGM)-coated metal specimens subjected to reproducible erosive situations. The coatings are deposited on metal substrates by a plasma spraying route using an atmospheric plasma spray setup working on a nontransferred arc mode. The response of these coatings to solid particle erosion for different test parameters is studied. The erosion test schedule is planned as per Taguchi's experimental design and is carried out under controlled laboratory conditions using an air jet–type erosion tester. The analysis of test results reveals that the impact velocity is the most significant among various factors influencing the erosion wear rate of these coatings. A prediction tool based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) is then implemented to predict the triboperformance of such coatings in regard to their erosion rates under different test conditions. ANN is a technique that takes into account the training, testing, and validation protocols using the database generated from experimentation. This technique helps in saving time and resources for a large number of experimental trials and it is seen in this work that it can successfully predict the wear rate of the coatings for test conditions both within and beyond the experimental domain.     

An improved crater grinding micro-abrasion test

The crater grinding test was originally developed for micro-abrasion evaluation of thin hard coatings. It is capable of determining the wear constants of the coating and substrate individually, even for very thin coatings. Crater grinding micro-abrasion tests also make very small wear scars and are thus virtually non-destructive. This paper evaluates modifications of the crater grinding test configuration in order to increase its accuracy and repeatability. In particular, new geometries of the wearing wheel have been tested on bulk samples of cemented carbides and alumina, and the effects of misalignments in the test equipment are also investigated. The proposed improvements to the test are shown to generate results with better accuracy and repeatability.     

Friction and wear behaviour of hard coatings in vibrating contacts

The friction and wear behaviour of thin hard coatings, such as TiN and the promising class of C-based coatings (a-C, a-C:H, and diamond for example), are compared under oscillating and reciprocating sliding conditions. The typical effects of test parameters, such as stroke, frequency, normal force, relative humidity and test duration, are described as a basis for the proper selection of test conditions or, conversely, for the selection of suitable coatings for particular practical applications. Friction and wear data from over 1000 vibrating tests using thin hard coatings against 100Cr6 and against Al₂O₃ have been compiled in a database. This allows easy manipulation and comparison of test results. Using selection criteria and filter procedures (e. g., lifetime of coatings, friction limits, and critical wear rate), suitable coating systems for different test conditions can be chosen from the database. The effects of test parameters on friction and wear behaviour and changes have anyway to be known for meaningful tribotesting, as well as for the selection of coatings.     

Deposition of duplex Al2O3/TiN coatings on aluminum alloys for tribological applications using a combined microplasma oxidation (MPO) and arc ion plating (AIP)

Microplasma oxidation (MPO) has recently been studied as a cost-effective plasma electrolytic process to provide thick and hard ceramic coatings with excellent surface load-bearing capacity on aluminum alloys. However, for sliding wear applications, such ceramic coatings often exhibit relatively high friction coefficients against many counterface materials. Although coatings deposited by physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques such as TiN coatings are well known for providing surfaces with a high hardness, in practice they often exhibit poor performance under mechanical loading, since the coatings are usually too thin to protect the substrate from the contact conditions. In this paper, these challenges were overcome by a duplex process of microplasma oxidation and arc ion plating (AIP), in which an alumina layer Al₂O₃ was deposited on an Al alloy substrate (using MPO as a pre-treatment process) for load support, and a TiN hard coatings were deposited (using AIP) on top of the Al₂O₃ layer for low friction coefficient. Microhardness measurements, pin-on-disc sliding wear tests, and antiwear tests using a Timken tester were performed to evaluate the mechanical and tribological properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe coating morphology, and to examine wear scars from pin-on-disc test. The research demonstrates that a hard and uniform TiN coating, with good adhesion and a low coefficient of friction, can successfully be deposited on top of an alumina intermediate layer to provide excellent load support. The investigations indicate that a duplex combination of MPO coating and TiN PVD coating represents a promising technique for surface modification of Al alloys for heavy surface load bearing application.     

Complex wear measurement on thin coatings by the cratering method

Ball cratering and rotating wheel tests are useful techniques for abrasive wear resistance evaluation of thin coatings. Nevertheless, such techniques involve significant experimental errors, coming from equipment deficiencies and changes in wear response depending on test parameters. In case of rotating wheel test, common instrumental errors are: geometry‐induced errors (curved or non‐horizontal sample surface), alignment errors (misalignment between ball/wheel rotation axis and sample stage) and optical measurement errors. In the present paper, errors due to crater dimension detection system (penetration depth or crater diameter) and equipment deficiencies (rotating axes misalignment and sample slope) were numerically analysed. A general expression for volume calculation was obtained, considering axes misalignment and sample slope, and experimentally validated by wear tests on Ti/TiN CAE‐PVD coatings and profilometer abraded volumes measurement. Results showed that axes misalignment and sample slope involve considerable errors in wear coefficient evaluation. However, errors can be corrected by the use of obtained expressions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Triboperformance Analysis of Coatings of LD Slag Premixed with TiO2 Using Experimental Design and ANN

This article reports on the analysis of triboperformance in regard to the erosion wear of a new class of coatings by an integrated implementation of Taguchi's experimental design and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Plasma-sprayed coatings of LD slag premixed with TiO₂ in different weight proportions are deposited on metal substrates at various input power levels of the plasma torch. Solid particle erosion trials, as per ASTM G 76 test standards, are conducted on the coating samples following a well-planned experimental schedule based on Taguchi's design of experiments. An air jet–type erosion test rig capable of creating reproducible erosive wear situations is used. Significant process parameters predominantly influencing the rate of erosion are identified. The study reveals that the impact velocity is the most significant among various factors influencing the wear rate of these coatings. A prediction model based on an ANN is proposed to predict the erosion performance of these coatings under a wide range of erosive wear conditions. This model is based on the database obtained from the experiments and involves training, testing, and prediction protocols. This work shows that an ANN model helps to save time and resources that are required for a large number of experimental trials and successfully predicts the erosion wear rate of the coatings both within and beyond the experimental domain.     

Cavitation and high-velocity slurry erosion resistance of welded Stellite 6 alloy

The cavitation and slurry erosion resistances of Stellite 6 coatings and 13-4 stainless steel were compared in laboratory. The Cavitation Resistance (CR) was measured according to ASTM G32 standard and the Slurry Erosion Resistance (SER) was tested in a high-velocity erosion tester under several impact angles. The results showed that the coatings improved the CR 15 times when compared to bare stainless steel. The SER of the coatings was also higher for all the impingement angles tested, the highest erosion rate being observed at 45°. The main wear mechanisms were micro-cracking (cavitation tests), and micro-cutting and micro-ploughing (slurry erosion tests).     

Monitoring of Wear Characteristics of TiN and TiAlN Coatings at Long Sliding Distances

TiN and TiAlN thin hard coatings have been widely applied on machine components and cutting tools to increase their wear resistance. These coatings have different wear behaviors, and determination of their wear characteristics in high-temperature and high-speed applications has great importance in the selection of suitable coating material to application. In this article, the wear behavior of single-layer TiN and TiAlN coatings was investigated at higher sliding speed and higher sliding distances than those in the literature. The coatings were deposited on AISI D2 cold-worked tool steel substrates using a magnetron sputtering system. The wear tests were performed at a sliding speed of 45 cm/s using a ball-on-disc method, and the wear area was investigated at seven different sliding distances (36–1,416 m). An Al₂O₃ ball was used as the counterpart material. The wear evolution was monitored using a confocal optical microscope and surface profilometer after each sliding test. The coefficient of friction and coefficient of wear were recorded with increasing sliding distance. It was found that the wear rate of the TiAlN coating decreases with sliding distance and it is much lower than that of TiN coating at longer sliding distance. This is due to the Al₂O₃ film formation at high temperature in the contact zone. Both coatings give similar coefficient of friction data during sliding with a slight increase in that of the TiAlN coating at high sliding distances due to the increasing alumina formation. When considering all results, the TiAlN coating is more suitable for hard machining applications.     

A comparative study of tribological behavior of microarc oxidation and hard-anodized coatings

Microarc oxidation (MAO), a novel coating technique capable of depositing dense, hard ceramic composite coatings on aluminium and its alloys, has the potential to replace conventional hazardous anodizing techniques. However, the emergence of such a scenario depends strongly on the properties and performance of MAO coatings in comparison to hard-anodized coatings. In order to facilitate such a comparative investigation, a 6061 T6 aluminium alloy was employed as the substrate and the coatings were deposited through microarc oxidation (MAO) and hard anodizing techniques. The tribological performance of the coatings was evaluated using dry-sand abrasive wheel tests at different normal loads and solid-particle erosion wear tests at different particle velocities and impact angles by employing silica as erodent. The hard-anodized coatings reduced the abrasive wear rate of 6061 Al alloy by a factor of 2, while the MAO coatings reduced the wear rate by a factor of 12-30. Under erosion conditions, the overall wear rate of MAO coatings is identical to that of bare alloy, whereas the hard-anodized coatings exhibit 10 times higher erosion rate.     

Microtribology

Contacts in microsystems are under very light loads, and contact elements are made of hard materials. However, contact surfaces are not always atomically smooth but have relatively high peaks of asperity. Silicon is hard but has poor anti‐wear properties. Good hard coatings thus become necessary for low wear. Liquid lubricants or adsorbed water generate meniscus forces and stiction. Therefore, a new lubrication method is required for coated surfaces. The present understanding of mechanisms of stiction and the generation of pull‐off force and high friction is reviewed for such contact conditions. New hard coating materials and a new concept of N2 lubrication that exhibit promising friction and wear behaviour are introduced. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tribological characterization of thin hard coatings by reciprocating sliding tests

Thin hard coatings on metal or ceramic surfaces offer a large spectrum of improvements of the friction and/or wear behaviour of tribosystems. The development of coatings and the tailoring of their properties require test methods providing information about their friction and wear behaviour. A new wear test standard (ASTM) is under development for the evaluation of friction and wear quantities for sliding motions using the reciprocating sliding mode. The applicability of this test method to coated specimens was checked by testing uncoated and coated steel specimens in contact with alumina balls, whereby lower loads were used than in the ASTM proposal for bulk materials. Additionally, the influence of the relative humidity of the surrounding air at room temperature on friction and wear results was examined.     

活塞环表面离子镀硬质膜的摩擦学性能研究

为了改善发动机活塞环的摩擦学性能和提高其使用寿命,采用离子镀技术在活塞环表面制备了CrN硬质膜,并利用SRV摩擦磨损试验机考察了硬质膜的摩擦学特性,研究结果表明离子镀硬质膜的摩擦系数基本与镀铬层一致,但磨损量远低于镀铬层的磨损量,与两种涂层活塞环配副的缸套试样的磨损量基本相当。     

Tribological behavior of plasma sprayed Cr2O3-3%TiO2 coatings

Tribological behaviors of plasma-sprayed conventional and nanostructured Cr₂O₃-3%TiO₂ ceramic coatings (i.e., CC3T and NC3T, respectively) using pin on disc type dry sliding and pot type slurry erosion test were investigated in the present work. The experimental results indicated that there were two main wear mechanisms, plastic smearing and adhesive tearing, in the worn coatings under dry sliding. Plastic smearing corresponded to a lower average friction coefficient and wear rate, while adhesive tearing corresponded to higher values. The erosive environment selected for the slurry erosion experiments include 10, 20 and 30% of SiO₂ slurry concentrations in water with particle size 75-106 μm. The main damage mechanism observed in all the coatings submitted to slurry erosion were the formation and propagation of brittle cracks resulting in the detachment of coating surface material. Microstructural investigation was also carried to investigate the wear and erosion mechanism of the coatings using FE-SEM and EDS analysis. Properties like microhardness and porosity were also investigated for these coatings. Tribological performance of NC3T was better as compared to CC3T as observed in the present work.     

Vacuum tribological behaviour of self‐lubricating quasicrystalline composite coatings

High‐temperature‐resistant self‐lubricating coatings are needed in space vehicles for components that operate at high temperatures and/or under vacuum. Thick composite lubricant coatings containing quasicrystalline alloys as the hard phase for wear resistance can be deposited by a thermal spray technique. The coatings also contain lubricating materials (silver and BaF₂ CaF2 eutectic) and NiCr as the tough component. This paper describes the vacuum tribological properties of TH103, a coating of this type, with a very good microstructural quality. The coating was deposited by high‐velocity oxygen fuel spraying and tested under vacuum using a pin‐on‐disc tribometer. Different loads, linear speeds, and pin materials were studied. The pin scars and disc wear tracks were characterised using a combination of scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry. A minimum mean steady friction coefficient of 0.32 was obtained when employing an X750 Ni superalloy pin in vacuum conditions under 10 N load and 15 cm/s linear speed, showing moderate wear of the disc and low wear of the pin.     

Study of seizure of coated and treated titanium alloy under fretting conditions

Titanium alloys are well known to present poor sliding behaviour and high wear values. Various coatings (soft thick coatings and thin hard coatings) and treatments have been tested to prevent such an occurrence under fretting conditions at high frequency of displacement (100 Hz). An original test apparatus, using an open-loop system, has been performed to directly display the phenomenon of seizure. No seizure was recorded at low load (6 N), while, at higher load (10 N), all samples undergo a more or less early seizure. The total sliding distance D₀ proved to be a pertinent parameter to study the seizure resistance. Furthermore, the results highlight that D₀ is linked to the total energy dissipated in the contact, E_dt, and reveal two distinct behaviours at low load, which suggest two distinct dissipating mechanisms of energy. The first trend can be connected with the plastic deformation and the trapping process of debris within the contact zone occurring on soft coatings. The second trend can be related to the higher debris ejection observed on hard samples. So, soft thick coating satisfies most of the chosen criteria except those of wear. In contrast, thin and hard coatings are not sufficient to totally protect the substrate but they are already able to efficiently reduce wear.     

Comparative Study of Thermally Sprayed Coatings Under Different Types of Wear Conditions for Hard Chromium Replacement

The tribological properties of part surfaces, namely their wear resistance and friction properties, are decisive in many cases for their proper function. To improve surface properties, it is possible to create hard, wear-resistant coatings by thermal spray technologies. With these versatile coating preparation technologies, part lifetime, reliability, and safety can be improved. In this study, the tribological properties of the HVOF-sprayed coatings WC–17%Co, WC–10%Co4%Cr, WC–15% NiMoCrFeCo, Cr₃C₂–25%NiCr, (Ti,Mo)(C,N)–37%NiCo, NiCrSiB, and AISI 316L and the plasma-sprayed Cr₂O₃ coating were compared with the properties of electrolytic hard chrome and surface-hardened steel. Four different wear behavior tests were performed; the abrasive wear performance of the coatings was assessed using a dry sand/rubber wheel test according to ASTM G-65 and a wet slurry abrasion test according to ASTM G-75, the sliding wear behavior was evaluated by pin-on-disk testing according to ASTM G-99, and the erosion wear resistance was measured for three impact angles. In all tests, the HVOF-sprayed hardmetal coatings exhibited superior properties and can be recommended as a replacement for traditional surface treatments. Due to its tendency to exhibit brittle cracking, the plasma-sprayed ceramic coating Cr₂O₃ can only be recommended for purely abrasive wear conditions. The tested HVOF-sprayed metallic coatings, NiCrSiB and AISI 316L, did not have sufficient wear resistance compared with that of traditional surface treatment and should not be used under more demanding conditions. Based on the obtained data, the application possibilities and limitations of the reported coatings were determined.     

Evaluation of erosive wear resistance of TiN coatings by a slurry jet impact test

In this paper, it is proposed to use a new type of solid particle impact test (slurry jet) to swiftly evaluate wear properties of thin, single layered or multilayered coatings. By the slurry jet, 1.2 μm alumina particles were impacted at high velocity perpendicular to thin PVD coatings of TiN deposited on high speed steel substrate materials under various substrate temperatures. Since the coatings have a much higher wear resistance than the substrate material, the wear rate increases significantly to the higher level of the HSS material when the coatings are penetrated. This is utilized in the quantification of the assessment of coating wear. A ranking of wear resistance and correlations to the coating surface hardness measured by nano-indentation tests, and coating morphology and structures are given and discussed. The TiN deposited under the highest substrate temperature proved to have the highest wear resistance although it had a relatively low hardness. The wear rate of the TiN coatings varies with the orientation of grains, that is, the {1 1 1} orientation that dominates for the high temperature deposition shows a higher wear resistance than the {1 0 0} orientation, which corresponds with the cleavage fracture behavior. Thus, it can be recommended as a screening test when evaluating coatings and coated materials.     

40Cr的冲蚀磨损性能研究

在自制的转盘式冲蚀磨损试验台上以45^#钢为对比材料,对40Cr的冲蚀磨损性能进行了试验研究,结果显示40Cr的冲蚀磨损规律与45^#钢基本相似,而耐冲蚀磨损性能比45^#钢稍强。在电子显微镜（SEM）下对40Cr和45^#钢冲蚀磨损表面形貌进行观察,分析表明：40Cr和45^#钢的冲蚀磨损机制都是硬质砂粒对材料表面的微切削作用。     

The comparison of wear properties of different Fe‐based hardfacing alloys in four kinds of testing methods

Iron‐based hardfacing alloys are widely used to protect machinery equipment. A strong correlation is given between microstructure and chemical composition of welding deposit with the resulting wear behaviour. Concerning precipitation of metallurgical hard phases and synthetic added hard particles, the bonding strength of the hard phases in the metallic matrix seems to play a dominating role to obtain high wear resistance. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the wear behaviour for pure abrasion, combined impact/abrasion and high impact wear, respectively, for four different Fe‐based hardfacing alloys. Tests were performed with a standard ASTM G65 dry‐sand/rubber‐wheel tester. An impeller–tumbler apparatus enabled investigation of impact abrasion wear tests. Additional wear tests with high impact loading were performed on a drop hammer apparatus. Fracture surface analysis was carried out after drop hammer testing and results were correlated with microstructure and interfacial bonding behaviour of precipitations in metallic matrix. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

QT500的冲蚀磨损试验研究

在自制的转盘式冲蚀磨损试验台上以灰口铸铁（HT200）为对比材料,对球墨铸铁（QT500）的冲蚀磨损性能进行了试验研究,结果显示QTS00的冲蚀磨损规律与HT200基本相似,而耐冲蚀磨损性能比HT200稍强。在电子显微镜（SEM）下对QTS00和HT200冲蚀磨损表面形貌进行观察,分析表明：QTS00的冲蚀磨损机制是硬质砂粒对材料表面的微切削作用,而HT200的冲蚀磨损机制是因赫兹裂纹导致的脆性脱落。