Influence of the Deposition Parameters on Microstructure and Properties of HVOF Sprayed WC-Crc-Ni Coating

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of thermal spray parameters of the high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) process on the properties of cermet coatings prepared from commercially available Amperit 551 WC-CrC-Ni powder. Three different processing parameters were applied to optimize the production process with the aim to achieve preeminent mechanical properties and fully dense material without microstructural defects. The deposition was carried out by a GLC5 gun. The velocity and temperature of powder particles in the spray stream were monitored by Accuraspray Tecnar diagnostic tool. The quality of deposited coatings was analyzed by means of light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The chemical composition of the used powder and sprayed WC-CrC-Ni coating was determined by energy dispersive spectroscopy. It was found that the spray parameters have a negligible effect on the resulting microstructure and phase composition of the coating. However, the porosity and surface roughness were significantly affected by the variation in process parameters. To assess the basic mechanical properties of HVOF sprayed coating instrumented Vickers hardness measurements were utilized. The coating hardness reached mean values over 1400 HV 0.1 and the indentation modulus varied from 152-279 GPa.