Wear Resistance Improvement for Grinding Balls of Horizontal Cement Mill in Cement Plant by Nano-Coating Technique

The grinding media play an important role in cement industry, and these balls suffered from severe wear during the grinding process of clinker inside horizontal mill. The aim of this research is to decrease the wear rate of the grinding balls manufacturing from cast iron alloy by using Nano coating layers of tungsten carbides (WC). The samples of white cast iron prepared according to standards specifications for wear test (pin on disc) and micro hardness test. High-velocity oxy-fuel system used to coat the samples with layers of thicknesses (50, 70, and 80μm) with Nano particles of tungsten carbides depending on the coating time. The results showed the best coat thickness was 70μm that gave best improvement mechanical wear resistance reach to 79%, due to its properties and good adhesion with the base material. The increasing in microhardness H.V reach to 14.7% for samples coated with 70μm layer thickness. The coating layer thickness of 80μm will subjected to flaking and failure due to low adhesion between the metal surface and thick coating layers.