Influence of HVOF coating on the HCF of 300M low alloy steel

The ultimate methods for solving the contamination of Cr6+ is to replace the Cr electroplating with other techniques, thermal spray provides one of the best choices among those alternative techniques. The influence of coatings upon the fatigue performance of substrate, however,should be labeled as an important factor at some high level applications. The effects of both coatings manufactured by HVOF and Cr electroplating respectively on the fatigue performance of substrate are investigated in this article. These results show that the fatigue limit strength at P= 50 %of thermal spray coating is 750 MPa in comparing with fatigue limit 726 MPa for substrate, and the fatigue life increase 25%- 150% when comparing with fatigue life of substrate at different stress levels. The fatigue life increases in the stress scope of 750-850 MPa even the area of thermal spray coating is subtracted. Cr eleetroplating coating reduces the fatigue life by 70%- 95% and the fatigue limit is only 600 MPa. Fracture analysis reveals that the main fracture is initiated at the subsurface, which is 0.2-0.5 mm away from substrate surface. The analysis also observes that the crack in the Cr electroplating propagates through the interface and finally into the substrate which hastens the formation of crack origin and the extension of crack in the substrate, however, the crack in the thermal spray coating deflects at the interface, spreads along the interface, as a result,the crack forming in the coatings has no negative influence on the main crack initiator and crack extension in the substrate.