Coating of low carbon steel surface with different borides using plasma arc method

In this master thesis a low carbon steel surface has been coated with borides (niobium borides and vanadium borides) using plasma arc method. In the plasma arc surface coating method, very high heat occurring by plasma melts the powder on the surface. In the study, ferroboron, ferroniobium and ferrovanadium powders have been used as sources of boron, niobium and vanadium, separately. For both niobium borides and vanadium borides five different amounts of powders have been used to obtain coatings having different amounts of borides. In addition, the effect of chromium has been investigated for the highest boride contents. After the coating studies, microstructrural examination, elemental and X-ray analyses, hardness measurements and abrasive wear tests have been performed. As a result, it was seen that hardness and wear resistance of the coatings have increased with the increase of boride contents. Key words: Plasma surface coating, Borides, Hardness, Wear resistance