Investigation of wear behaviors of WC and Mo coatings produced with APS method

In this study, WC and Mo thermal spray powders were deposited onto AISI 1020 specimen surfaces using Atmospheric Plasma Spraying method. Following the coating process, micro-abrasion wear tests with different abrasive suspensions, and dry sliding wear tests under were performed under varying loads. The following results were obtained after the conducted research. Both WC and Mo powders were successfully deposited onto AISI 1020 steel substrate surfaces using APS method. The coating thickness was specified as 100-125 μm. The hardness of the WC-coated specimens was found as 1800 HV, whereas that of Mo-coated specimens was found as 1200 HV. No presence of W and Mo elements was encountered during the X-ray analyses performed following the coating process. Wear resistance of the specimens were found to increase with increasing surface hardness values. Increasing rate of abrasive particles within the solution resulted with increased mass loss of the specimens during micro-abrasion tests, however no change was observed in the wear mechanism. Grooving wear mechanism was observed on the specimens coated with Mo. WC-coated specimens exhibited higher wear resistance during dry sliding wear tests. Delamination was observed on the WC coated specimens as the wear mechanism, whereas plastic deformation was observed on Mo-coated specimens.