Influence of Chromium Concentration on the Abrasive Wear of Ni-Cr-B-Si Coatings Applied by Supersonic Flame Jet (HVOF)

This research work studies the characteristics of wear and wear resistance of composite powder coatings, deposited by supersonic flame jet (HVOF), which contain composite mixtures Ni-Cr-B-Si having different chromium concentrations—9.9%, 13.2%, 14%, 16%, and 20%, at one and the same size of the particles and the same content of the remaining elements. The coating of 20% Cr does not contain B and Si. Out of each powder composite, coatings have been prepared without any preliminary thermal treatment of the substrate and with preliminary thermal treatment of the substrate up to 650 °C. The coatings have been tested under identical conditions of dry friction over a surface of solid, firmly-attached, abrasive particles using tribological testing device “Pin-on-disk”. Results have been obtained and the dependences of the hardness, mass wear, intensity of the wearing process, and absolute and relative wear resistance on the Cr concentration under identical conditions of friction. It has been found out that for all the coatings the preliminary thermal treatment of the substrate leads to a decrease in the wear intensity. Upon increasing Cr concentration the wear intensity diminishes and it reaches minimal values at 16% Cr. In the case of coatings having 20% Cr concentration, the wear intensity is increased, which is due to the absence of the components B and Si in the composite mixture, whereupon no inter-metallic structures are formed having high hardness and wear resistance. The obtained results have no analogues in the current literature and they have not been published by the authors