Investigation on Wear Behavior of Steels Coated with WC by ESD Technique

• Published in: Protection of metals and physical chemistry of surfaces Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 106 - 112
• Main Authors: Yusuf Kayali, Şükrü Talaş
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abrasion resistant alloys; Abrasion resistant coatings; Abrasion resistant steels; Ceramic coatings; Cermets; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Coated electrodes; Coatings; Corrosion and Coatings; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Inorganic Chemistry; Materials; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; New Substances; Spark deposition; Substrates; Thickness; Tribology; Tungsten carbide; Wear; AISI 5140; AISI 4140; coefficient of friction; wear; microhardness; AISI 1040; ESD coating
• ISSN: 2070-2051; 2070-206X
• DOI: 10.1134/S2070205120060131

— Electro-spark deposition (ESD) or low energy welding (LEW) technique allows the coating of metallic materials with different metal and alloys, conductive ceramics and conductive ceramic metal composites. It is also known as micro-joining process to improve the wear properties of the substrate or to obtain a more durable upper superficial coating. In this study, the surfaces of AISI 1040, AISI 4140 and AISI 5140 steels were coated with WC electrode at constant rotational speed and then characterized by a metallographic study. A homogeneous coating thickness was observed in microscopy studies and the formation of W 2 C phase in the coating layer was determined in XRD analysis. Hardness of WC coated samples increased approximately 5 times. Abrasion tests were carried out by ball-on disc method with WC–Co ball at 250 m under 5N load. In the abrasion tests with WC–Co ball, the best abrasion resistance is obtained with WC coated AISI 5140 steel, while the lowest strength is obtained with uncoated AISI 4140 steel.