Examination of the wear properties of HVOF sprayed nanostructured and conventional WC-Co cermets with different binder phase contents

There has been an increase in interest of late regarding the properties of thermally sprayed WC-Co cermets with nanograin carbide particles. These powders have shown interesting properties in sintered components, giving high values of hardness (2200-2300 VHN) and improved wear properties. The method used for the processing for these materials - solution formation, spray drying and chemical conversion, rather than introduction of WC as solid particles to a molten binder - allows the formation of sub-100 nm WC particles as a hard second phase. The work presented here examined the effect of composition on the microstructure and wear properties of some nanostructured WC-Co materials. WC-Co cermets with 8, 10, 12, and 15% Co binder phase were deposited using a Sulzer Metco hybrid DJ HVOF thermal spray system. Optimization of deposition conditions was necessary because of the unique morphology of the powders (thick-shelled hollow spheres) to produce dense consolidated deposits. There is a higher degree of decarburization of the WC phase in the nanostructured materials compared with the conventional WC-Co. This dissolution of the hard phase is also noted to increase on decreasing binder phase content. The nanostructured WC-Co coatings have a lower wear resistance compared with the conventional WC-Co for abrasive wear and small particle erosion. The abrasive wear resistance of these nanostructured materials was found to increase on decreasing cobalt binder content. This trend in abrasive wear resistance is consistent with studies on conventional sized cermets and is believed to be more dependent upon proportion of binder phase content than degree of decarburization for the materials studied. The small particle erosion resistance of the nanostructured coatings was found to increase on increasing cobalt content.