Wear behaviour of thermal spray Al/SiCp coatings

Aluminium matrix composite coatings reinforced with more than 20 vol.% of SiC particles have been successfully prepared by simple and low cost oxy-acetylene thermal spraying process on steel substrates. The porosity and voids of the coatings have been diminished by a compaction procedure at 20 °C or at 350 °C. The wear behaviour of these coatings has been tested using the ball-on-disc technique. The wear resistance of the aluminium coatings was greatly enhanced by the incorporation of the SiC reinforcement which delayed the transition from mild to severe wear. The wear resistance of the post-sprayed treated coatings was higher than that of the as-sprayed composite coatings for all loads studied. The wear process of Al/SiCp coatings is controlled by plastic deformation and the wear rate has been expressed as a single function that only depends on normal load and plasticity index of the coatings.