No abstract

In this study the influence of the TiB2, ZrB2, and CrB2 additives into NiAl-intermetallics on their wear behavior under friction conditions at the high temperature in the pair with steel has been investigated. It was shown, that the borides additives have influenced on the wear mechanism, significantly increasing the wear resistance of composite coatings pointed out. Among the coatings studied the NiAl-15 wt. % CrB2 coating showed the best result.

The development of composite materials (CM) in the systems "metal-refractory compound" is one of the up-to-date trends in design of novel materials aimed at operating under the conditions of significant loads at high temperature. To design such material, NiAl, which is widely used for deposition of protective coatings on parts of gas-turbine engines, was selected for a matrix. To strengthen a NiAl under the conditions of intense wear and a broad temperature range (up to 1000 °C), it is reasonable to add refractory inclusions. Introduction of refractory borides into matrix leads to a marked increase in metal wear resistance. In order to research the behavior of the designed composites at high temperatures and to study the influence of oxides on the friction processes, the authors carried out high temperature oxidation of CM of the above systems at 1000 °С for 90 min. It was determined that all of the composites were oxidized selectively and that the thickness of oxide layers formed on the boride inclusions is 3-7 times that on the oxides formed on the NiAl matrix. The mechanism of wear of gas-thermal coatings of the NiAl-МеB2 systems was studied for conditions of high temperature tribotests using the «pin-on-disc» technique. The obtained results indicate that introduction of TiB2, CrB2 and ZrB2 leads to their more intense oxidation during high temperature tribotests as compared to the matrix. The oxides formed on refractory borides act as solid lubricants, which promote a decrease in wear of the contact friction pairs. For more detailed investigation of the effect of tribo-oxidation products on the friction processes, tribotests were conducted for prior oxidized (at 900 °С) coatings NiAl-15 wt.% CrB2 (TiB2, ZrB2).

Metal matrix composite coatings are developed to protect parts made from materials susceptible to wear, like nickel alloys or stainless steel. The industry-established deposition method is presently an atmospheric plasma spraying method since it allows the production of both well-adhering and thick coatings. Alternatively, similar coatings could be produced by co-milling of ceramic and alloyed powders together with metallic plates serving as substrates. It results in mechanical embedding of the powder particles into exposed metallic surfaces required coatings. The present experiment was aimed at the analysis of microstructure of such coatings obtained using NiAl and CrB2 powders. They were loaded together with nickel and stainless steel platelets into ball mill vials and rotated at 350 rpm for up to 32 h. This helped to produce coatings of a thickness up to ~40 µm. The optical, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy observations of the coatings led to conclusion that the higher the rotation speed of vials, the wider the intermixing zone between the coating and the substrate. Simultaneously, it was established that the total thickness of the coating deposited at specified conditions is limited by the brittleness of its nanocrystalline matrix. An increase in the hardness of the substrate results in a decrease of the intermixing zone. The above results indicate that even as the method based on mechanical embedding could so far produce thinner coatings than the plasma spraying, in the former case they are characterized by a more uniform nanocrystalline matrix with homogenously distributed fine ceramic particles.