2017-07-06 Surface coating

Dry-sliding wear of laser clad nickel aluminide / chromium carbide coatings against cast iron

The wear of piston rings in large marine two-stroke diesel engines is a major maintenance cost. Applying coatings with good oxidation, corrosion resistance and high temperature strength, can lower the total maintenance cost. In the past nickel aluminide with chromium carbide have been applied to pistons by thermal spraying. Using laser cladding a suitable microstructure can be formed while at the same time avoiding cracks and bonding issues. In this report powders and coatings were manufactured in order to be able to investigate the dry-sliding wear behavior. Material with three levels of carbides was atomized. Wear test samples were manufactured by laser cladding. The dry sliding wear-mechanism maps are generated by using block on ring test setup where coated blocks slide against cast iron rings. All alloys exhibited regions of plasticity-dominated wear and oxidational wear with a transition region in-between. The carbide-containing alloys showed lower friction and wear in comparison to the carbide free nickel aluminide alloy.