The investigation of coating properties of stainless steel WC coated by HVOF

Coatings are improvement methods applied to the surface of a material in order to eliminate phenomena such as abrasion, friction, corrosion, thermal degradation, etc. Coatings are commonly used to enhance corrosion and abrasion resistance, fatigue strength and physical properties of steel and its alloys. Many industries such as aviation, automotive, medicine, textile, power, iron-steel, paper, shipbuilding and petroleum require coating applications. This dissertation study focuses on austenitic AISI 304 and AISI 316 stainless-steel and martensitic AISI 420 stainless steel. WC/Co, a material with high abrasion resistance, was selected as coating powder. As HVOF method, as a coating process, allows for coating parameters to be customized for specific applications, it was selected as the coating process of this study. In this study, using the HVOF method, three types of stainless-steel, namely, AISI 304, AISI 316, and AISI 420, were coated with WC/Co at the thicknesses of 150μm, 250μm ve 350μm. Half of the samples were produced using NiCr as binder and the other half were produced without using a binder. Coated samples were then subjected to metallographic microstructure assessment, Vicker's hardness test, adhesion test, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. The tests resulted in hardness values, microstructure images, and adhesion test assessments. According to the data obtained, austenitic stainless-steels were compared as austenitic and martensitic stainless-steels and the conclusions are reported.