Tribology International 44 (2011) 17111719

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Tribology International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

An investigation of sliding wear behaviour of WCCo coating

V. Rajinikanth, K. Venkateswarlu n
CSIR National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur 831007, India

a r t i c l e i n f o

abstract

Article history:
Received 10 August 2010
Received in revised form
17 June 2011
Accepted 20 June 2011
Available online 5 July 2011

Dry sliding wear tests on specimens of mild steel (MS) and WC coated mild steel (MSC) specimens were
performed against a hardened EN32 steel (EN32) and a WC coated EN32 steel (EN32C) discs. Four
different combinations of specimen and counter surface were tested under dry sliding conditions.
Results suggest that wear mechanisms differ depending on the combination of materials under sliding
contact. Expectedly the MS specimen suffered high wear loss, but the MSC specimen showed
interesting results. When slid against EN32, MSC specimens showed negative wear results whereas
positive wear results occurred against EN32C. Steady wear rate was attained after a critical sliding
distance.
& 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
WCCo coating
Thermal spray
HVOF
Sliding wear

1. Introduction
There has been a constant effort to develop super hard coatings
with excellent mechanical properties to combat wear loss. WCCo
cermet is best known for its superior wear resistance-strength
combination even at moderately elevated temperature up to
400 1C [1]. The cermets are generally used in dry sliding wear
conditions because of their relatively high hardness and wear
resistance. Wear behaviour of WCCo cermets under various
experimental conditions have been studied [25]. These studies
suggest that the high wear resistance of this material is a function
of carbide to binder ratio, carbide grain size and bulk hardness of
the material [4,5]. Efforts were also made to study the wear
resistance of thermally sprayed WCCo coatings, i.e., combination
of WC (hard constituent) and soft-ductile Co (binder). Thermal
spraying is widely accepted as a low cost spray processing and
used for many industrial applications [6]. Amongst the various
techniques available for the fabrication of WCCo coatings, high
velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF), an advanced thermal spray technique,
has gained much attention. HVOF thermal spraying has outperformed other methods for deposition of WCCo powder [79]
because the WC powder particles under the inuence of higher
velocities and lower temperature have less probability of getting
decomposed during spraying [10]. In addition to the low degree of
decomposition of WC powder during spraying, the low porosity
levels of WC coatings favour high wear resistance. The low degree
n
Corresponding author. Presently working with Materials Science Division, CSIR
National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore 560017, India.
Tel.: 91 80 25086244; fax: 91 80 25270098.
E-mail address: karodi2002@yahoo.co.in (K. Venkateswarlu).

0301-679X/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2011.06.021

of decomposition in HVOF thermal spray may be attributed to the

small residence time of particles in the ame and low temperatures. However, the WCCo powder morphology along with a type
of HVOF thermal spraying system and other spraying parameters
affect the coating microstructure which, in turn, affect the wear
behaviour of the coatings. Yang et al. have studied the correlation
between carbide grain size on the sliding and abrasive wear
behaviour of WC-12%Co coatings at room temperature [11].
Usmani et al. have closely examined the inuence of carbide grain
size and on the sliding and abrasive wear behaviour of HVOF
thermally sprayed WC-17%Co coatings [12]. These investigations
showed that the carbide grain size is an important parameter in
inuencing the wear performance of WCCo coatings. Sliding wear
behaviour of WCCo coatings at elevated temperatures up to
400 1C was investigated by Yang et al. [1]. In addition, they also
showed that the specic wear rate of the coating increases with
increase in carbide grain size at a given temperature, but decreases
with increase in temperature for a given carbide grain size. Though
signicant efforts were made on investigating dry sliding friction
and wear behaviour of WCCo coatings, most of them are limited
to the studies involving sintered alumina (Al2O3) as the mating
material. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to
study the dry sliding friction and wear behaviour of MS and MSC
specimens on a pin-on-disc machine. The sliding wear tests were
carried out in two stages. Firstly, against a perfectly at standard
EN32 disc and against an EN32C disc. The mechanism of material
loss and wear particle formation are investigated extensively and
related to the coating microstructure, spraying conditions and
powder characteristics. It is found that adhesion, the most prominent wear mechanism, in sliding wear can substantially be controlled by careful selection of the sliding materials.

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2. Experimental procedure
2.1. WCCO coating
The WCCo powder used for HVOF thermal spraying was
obtained from Metal Powder Company, Mumbai and has a
composition of WC-12 wt% Co. The purity of the powder was
99.9%. The grain size of the WC particles was 1.570.5 mm.
Before proceeding for the spraying process, 1 wt% urea solution in
water was added to the WC powder for globulisation [13]. This
enhances the owability of powder during spraying and also
maintains the homogeneity of the composition within the globules. Then the powder was dried at 120 1C for 1 h to remove the
volatile materials and water. For the present investigation, one
EN32 disc and MS substrates were coated with WC-12 wt% Co,
using HVOF spraying technique. Prior to spraying, the substrates
were degreased to remove all surface contaminants from the
interstices and surface pores [14]. The coating surfaces of the mild
steel substrates were polished using 120 grit emery paper. The
specimens were mounted on the circumference of a horizontally
rotating turntable maintained at an effective horizontal transverse rate. The gun system (HIPOJET4500, MEC, India) delivering a
vertical transverse movement, was xed on the transverse unit by
a suitable mechanism. A mixture of oxygen, fuel gas (liquid
petroleum gas) and a carrier gas (argon) along with WC powder
was introduced into the combustion chamber. When the gas
mixture was ignited, the controlled hot gas jet accelerated the
powder downstream along the nozzle to impact the substrate.
The velocity and temperature of the particles that come out from
the nozzle was measured by employing a laser jet particle
velocity analyser. Multiple detonations occurring within a short
time at such high velocity helped in obtaining a coating of
sufcient thickness. The temperature attained within the detonation gun was  1200 1C, as measured by an optical pyrometer. The
substrates were maintained at a temperature of  200 1C in order
to reduce thermal expansion during the coating process. The
coating thickness was measured to be  200 mm using Quanix
8500, a German make thickness measurement tester.
2.2. Dry sliding wear
Dry sliding wear tests were performed using a pin-on-disc
machine (Model TR 20, Ducom, Bangalore, India) in conformity
with ASTM G 99-05 standard. The following four combinations
were selected for dry sliding friction and wear tests: (1) MS
specimen against EN32 counter surface, (2) MS specimen against
EN32C, (3) MSC specimen against EN32 counter surface, and
(4) MSC specimen against EN32C counter surface. The specimen
size for sliding wear test was 8 mm in diameter and 40 mm in
length (inclusive of the WC coating, in case of the coated specimen). The counter surface (EN32 disc & EN32C disc) had a
diameter of 165 mm and thickness of 7 mm (inclusive of the
coating thickness, 200 mm). A sliding speed of 200 rpm was
maintained for all the sliding tests. Prior to the tests, the specimens were made perfectly at by moving the specimen mating
surfaces on a polished steel disc at a very low load (0.1 kg) for
sufcient period so that the whole specimen surface makes
perfect contact with the counter surface. The wear loss in microns
mentioned in this work was directly proportional to the height
loss of the specimen. A LVDT, which was xed to the sliding wear
test machine, measures the height loss as the specimen was
loaded by a cantilever system. The co-efcient of friction and
frictional force were also continuously monitored and recorded
separately during each sliding test. The variation in temperature
of the specimen surface during the sliding wear tests was
measured by inserting a thermocouple into the specimen,

approximately 5 mm above from the contacting surface of the

specimen. The specimens were cleaned with and were weighed
before and after each test to determine the weight loss. Each test
was conducted continuously (without any interruption) up to a
sliding distance of 3200 m at two different loads (1 and 2 kg).
Standard metallographic techniques were used for microstructural studies on the WCCo coated specimens. The polished and
etched samples were examined in optical microscope and SEM
(JEOL, JSM840A, Japan). The worn surfaces and debris after dry
sliding wear tests were also collected and examined using SEM.
The specimens were gold sputtered in case of wear debris prior to
SEM examination. For elemental analysis, EPMA (JXA-8600 M,
JEOL, Japan) was used and line prole quantitative elemental
analysis was carried out by EPMA on abraded samples.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Characterisation of starting materials and WC coating
The SEM image of the as-received WC-12 wt% Co powder is
shown in Fig. 1a. The average particle size of WC particles is
 2 mm; these are ne particles cladded with cobalt. WC particles
are globular in nature and the tendency to agglomerate with each
other is quite evident. The energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
analysis of the WCCo powder gave  12% cobalt (Fig. 1b). The
optical image of MS substrate before deposition of WCCo coating
is shown in Fig. 2a along with the back scattered image of the
WCCo coating is in Fig. 2b. The presence of C, W, Co, Cr is clearly
seen from the EDS pattern as shown in Fig. 2c. The microstructural detail shows the uniform distribution of WC particles
within cobalt matrix. Excellent bonding between the WC particles
and the cobalt matrix is also observed in the coating (Fig. 2b). This
image of WC coating revealed that the average particles size is
 1.570.5 mm indicatings that no substantial change has
occurred in the particle shape or morphology of WCCo after
the coating. Further, SEM studies revealed dark (grey shades) and
bright regions that contain dissolved tungsten and carbon apart
from cobalt. This is in agreement with the microstructural studies
by Shipway et al. [15]. The appearance of grey shades represent
cobalt-rich binder matrix while the highly bright regions indicate
strong presence of tungsten due to substantially high dissolution
on the WC particles associated with decarburization from these
regions [16]. The XRD spectrum of the deposited WC-12 wt% Co
coating showed WC and Co (major peaks) along with (minor
peaks) W2C (Fig. 3). Similar observation was also made by Yang
et al. [11]. Presence of W2C in the coating can be attributed to a
low degree of decomposition of WC during thermal spray. Degree
of decomposition can further be reduced by employing low ame
temperature and high particle velocity. This is in good agreement
with the results of previous studies [12,17,18]. With regard to the
carbide size, Yang et al. have found that decreasing the size of
carbide particles in the starting powder led to an increase in the
degree of decomposition of WC [11]. On the contrary, the amount
of decomposition observed in the present investigation was
relatively low in comparison to other studies [12,1719]. It is
also observed that WC and b-cobalt was highly retained in the
coating (Fig. 2b). Such higher retention levels were reported for
coatings deposited by HVOF process at very high gas velocities
[20]. Prior to the deposition, the hardness of standard EN32 disc
was  800 HV (62RC), while the mean bulk hardness of WC
coated steel disc was 995 HV. MS specimen exhibited an
average hardness of 180 HV; upon deposition of WC coating a
surface hardness of  995 HV was obtained. Yang et al. reported
that when hardness measurements were made using loads as
high as 9.8 or 49 N, the indentations were big enough to include

V. Rajinikanth, K. Venkateswarlu / Tribology International 44 (2011) 17111719

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Fig. 1. (a) SEM image of the as-received WC-12 wt% Co powder and (b) EDS analysis of the WCCo powder.

Fig. 2. (a) Optical image of MS substrate before deposition of WCCo coating, (b) back scattered image of the WCCo coating and (c) EDS pattern WCCo coating along
with substrate.

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V. Rajinikanth, K. Venkateswarlu / Tribology International 44 (2011) 17111719

Fig. 4. Dry sliding wear response of MS specimen on EN32 for different

applied loads.

Fig. 3. XRD spectrum of the deposited WC-12 wt% Co coating.

pores and several splats, thus higher porosity and weaker splat
cohesion in ner coating resulted in low hardness value [11]. In
contrast, a fairly high bulk hardness value of 995 HV is observed
for the WCCo coating at 2 kg load. This is indicative of low
porosity and increased splat cohesion of the coating obtained by
HVOF spraying process. The coating principally consisted of WC
particles within soft ductile cobalt matrix along with a minor
presence of W2C. In this regard, some discernible differences were
observed in comparison to other studies [1719,21] that reported
a still higher fraction of W2C phase. Delving into earlier studies, a
matrix may have varying compositions depending upon the
fractional replacement of ductile metallic cobalt phase by nanocrystalline CoxWyC or/and amorphous CoWC phase [1719,21].
The earlier studies reasoned that increase in hardness is dependent on the increasing content of W2C in the deposited coatings,
because W2C phase (HV29.4 GPa) is harder than WC phase
(HV 23.5 GPa) [22], nanocrystalline CoxWyC or amorphous
CoWC phase is harder than the b-cobalt phase and that the
presence of either or both these phases results in a strong metallic
cohesion between the WC particles and cobalt matrix. The hardness of the coatings increased substantially with an increase in
W2C phase content, and this increases further when the Co6W6C
phase substitutes metallic cobalt as the matrix phase [21]. The
cobalt as binder phase must have melted and to form the unmelted carbide particles must have passed along with the ame
depositing themselves during HVOF process thus resulting in high
strength and good adhesion between the matrix and particles.
3.2. Sliding wear test
The dry sliding wear response of MS specimen on EN32 for
different applied loads (1 and 2 kg), for a sliding distance of
3200 m is shown in Fig. 4. The specimen suffered a wear loss of
180 and 220 mm for 1 and 2 kg load, respectively. Mild steel is
(hardness 180 HV) relatively soft in comparison to counter EN32
disc (hardness 820 HV) and hence exhibited appreciable adhesion
and resulted in substantial material removal. Since adhesion is
more under higher loads, the wear loss for 2 kg was greater than
1 kg load. The abrupt increase in initial wear loss was due to the
sudden increase in contact area and increased incidence of

Fig. 5. Wear tracks on MS specimens against EN32 disc (a) 1 kg, (b) 2 kg and
(c) 2 kg, high magnication.

adhesion. After an initial sliding distance of 200 m, the contact

stress reduced due to increased contact area and resulted in a
moderate increase in wear loss.
The wear tracks on MS specimens after a sliding distance of
3200 m is shown in Fig. 5. The wear tracks formed under 2 kg
applied load is deeper than at 1 kg load. The groove width was
 23.6 and 11 mm for 2 and 1 kg applied loads, respectively. The
prime cause for material removal under high applied load is
attributed to high adhesion between the opposing surfaces, which
is possibly due to high ratio of adhesion force to contact force. The
presence of strong adhesion force can be explained by the
electron transfer between the contacting surfaces. Numerous free
electrons are present in metals and, on contact; these electrons
may be exchanged between the two solids to establish almost
instantaneous bonding [23]. An image of the wear debris collected after a sliding distance of 3200 m, for 2 kg load is shown in
Fig. 6. The average size of the debris particles is  3 mm. The

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Fig. 7. (a) and (b) wear track formed when MS specimen slid against EN32C at
different magnications.

Fig. 6. Wear debris collected after a sliding distance of 3200 m, for 2 kg load.

formation of wear particles (debris) is due to the action of

adhesion between asperities and considerable plastic deformation
of asperities caused during sliding motion. Material in the softer
asperities is deformed in a series of shear bands to accommodate
the relative movement, thus offering resistance to sliding along
contact line of the asperities. When the shear bands reach a
critical limit, a crack is initiated which later extends across the
asperities causing an eventual detachment of the deformed
asperities. Asperities with large slope angle tend to lose material
to asperities with small slope angle [24]. The combined action of
strong adhesion, abrasion and severe plastic deformation of the
asperities contributes to high and continuously increasing material loss in MS specimen.
The wear loss was higher in the case of MS specimen slid
against EN32C disc with a bulk hardness value  995 Hv under
different applied loads. The maximum wear loss corresponding to
1 and 2 kg load was 540 and  660 mm, respectively. Fig. 4
shows that the initial increase in wear loss was reduced after
sliding distances of approximately, 150 and 200 m under applied
loads of 1 and 2 kg, respectively. Beyond this the wear loss curve
follows a moderately increasing path. The high wear loss in the
initial stages was possibly due to high localised contact pressure
at the real contact point between the opposing asperities; with
increasing sliding distance the real contact area between the
surfaces increases after having slid a certain distance. Fig. 7 shows
the wear track formed on the specimen surface at different
applied loads. The ne plugging out of materials and subsequent
ploughing led to the formation of grooves. The mechanism of
groove formation involved ploughing of soft MS surface by the
hard WC particles. The groove width estimated as  2 mm, and is
similar to the size of carbide particles in the coating. The amount
of debris formed was more in case of higher applied loads. The
wear debris was collected and examined under SEM (Fig. 8). The
average size of debris particles is  3 mm. Iron along with minor

Fig. 8. SEM image of wear debris when MS slid against EN32C at 2 kg load.

presence of tungsten and cobalt were found through EDS examination of debris.
The sliding wear behaviour of MSC specimen slid against
standard EN32 disc and EN32C disc is shown in Fig. 9. Initially a
negative trend of wear loss is clearly observed in case of MSC
specimen slid against the standard EN32 disc. The negative wear
is suggestive of the fact that the specimen initially gained weight,
causing an increase in the sample height which resulted in the
specimen being raised from the counter surface. It was observed
that having a slid a critical sliding distance, associated with a net
weight gain, a steady increase in wear loss has occurred. The
critical sliding distance at which the wear rate acquires a steady
value is observed to be a function of the applied load. It is also
observed that the weight gain is even more with the application
of a higher load (2 kg). The critical distance to reach the steady
state value with 2 kg is more than at 1 kg applied load. Increase in
weight gain or sample height at higher applied loads was due to
greater adhesion. During the dry sliding, it was observed that the
EN32 disc suffered wear due to relatively harder MSC specimen

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V. Rajinikanth, K. Venkateswarlu / Tribology International 44 (2011) 17111719

Fig. 9. Sliding wear performance of various coated samples.

being slid against it. The hard WC particles present on the surface
of MSC specimen caused the wear of EN32 disc, and the wear loss
increased further with increase in the applied load. An increase in
applied load caused greater penetration of WC particles into the
opposing surface. The wear out of EN32 disc started almost
instantaneously when the specimen began sliding against it.
Initially the wear particles were detached from the steel surface
due to adhesion and then the worn out particles were subsequently removed by asperities contact to form true wear particles.
Some of these wear particles were lost as debris from the system,
with a few entrapped between the opposing surfaces in contact
because the worn out particles are largely conned within the
groove formed as a result of negative wear on the steel disc. The
entrapped debris particles owing to its ne size produced negligible damage on the surfaces, possibly due to the fragmentation
of wear particle under sliding motion. The debris obtained after
fragmentation were very ne particles, and these ne particles
were inefcient in wearing the surfaces as a third-body abrasive.
The specic surface area of these ne debris particles was large
enough to cause the reattachment of the particles to one another
and to the specimen surface, readily forming the transfer lm. The
transfer lm was formed by the mechanical alloying between the
materials under sliding motion, resulting in the formation of
particles consisting of lamella of the two materials. The formation
of the transfer lm has a dramatic effect on the wear rate [25].
The thin transfer lm formed on the surface of MSC specimen
preventes further wear. Due to the protruding hard asperities on
the surface of MSC substrate held the abraded debris in the
valleys between the asperities (locking action), the presence of
transfer lm was maintained on the surface of specimen. The
locking action by the hard WC particles was more at higher
applied loads because the debris entrapped experiences greater
degree of compaction on the specimen surface. Due to this, the
wearing of steel disc and the material gained by the specimen
surface is high at higher applied loads. Hence, the width of the
transfer lm is expected to be more at higher applied loads but
the stability of the transfer lm decreases with increase in its
width beyond a critical value. Therefore counter removal of
transfer particles as wear debris from the transfer lm occurred
at higher applied loads that maintain both the thickness of the
lm below the critical value and the stability. Thus at equilibrium,
the rate of transfer of wear particles to the specimen is balanced
to the wear rate of the disc. The wear debris was formed entirely
from the transfer layer on the specimen while the specimen

suffered almost negligible wear. The transfer of material from the

steel disc is evident from EDS analysis, which conrmed the
presence of iron in the debris collected. The wear behaviour was
principally controlled by the combined action of material transfer
and the counter formation and removal of mechanically mixed
layer (MML).
The sliding wear of MSC specimen slid against EN32C disc is
shown in Fig. 9. When the MSC specimen was brought into sliding
contact with the EN32C disc, the soft cobalt matrix suffered
severe deformation. The compressive stress imposed by the hard
asperities of WC particles on the specimen surface under sliding
motion caused the deformation and subsequent extrusion of the
cobalt matrix. The matrix underwent severe deformation, thereby
causing a reduction in the matrix support, earlier imparted to the
WC particles. This causes micro-cracking and pull-out of WC
particles that leads to the formation of wear debris. Cobalt being
soft and ductile was easily deformed and extruded, thus the
debris so obtained was rich in cobalt content. The SEM image
shows the bright and dark grey regions corresponding to tungsten
carbide and cobalt binder phase (Fig. 10). The originally formed
debris particles were not lost completely from the system and a
part of them got entrapped between the opposing surfaces under
sliding motion. The wear debris was reduced to even ner
particles. The very ne particles in the debris reattached to form
a transfer lm on the surface of disc coming under sliding contact.
In addition, since the debris was cobalt rich, the particles adhered
fairly with minimum porosity. The dense lm had good cohesion
of particles due to fair performance of cobalt as a binder and thus
protected the specimen against rapid wear. Consequently, the
coating showed a very low wear rate. Since the pulled out ne
carbide particles provided less damage to the WC coated counter
surface and also the debris of ner carbides were less effective as
third-body abrasives, the sliding wear rate decreased to a steady
value. The steady wear loss in the mild wear regime is possibly
due to the counter formation and removal of transfer lm which
maintained the thickness of the lm. It is evident from Fig. 9 that
wear loss increased with increase in contact pressure, but in the
later stages a steady behaviour with continuous mild increase is
observed. Yang et al. [11] have reported that higher the contact
pressure the shorter is the sliding distance to enter the mild wear
regime. In contrast, an opposite trend was observed in the present
study that with increase in applied load the sliding distance was
longer to acquire a steady wear condition. The afore stated wear
mechanism lead to the formation of grooves (Fig. 11), which
involved ploughing of the specimen surface by hard transfer
particles. These transfer particles grew harder due to severe work
hardening. The work hardened transfer particles under the
application of normal and tangential stresses caused fair deformation of ductile cobalt matrix, but W2C and WC phases experienced poor deformation. Thus the ductile cobalt matrix was
forced to protrude above the specimen surface, which led to the

Fig. 10. (a) SEM and (b) BEI-SEM image of wear debris when MSC sample slid
against EN32c, 1 kg load.

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Fig. 11. Wear track of MSC when slid against EN32C at 1 kg load.

Fig. 13. (A) EPMA analysis on worn surface and (B) EDS analysis on mopped
region.

Fig. 12. Co-efcient of friction versus sliding distance results on various coated
samples at 1 and 2 kg loads.

removal of matrix in few places. After the removal of soft matrix,

micro-cracking and detachment of hard WC and W2C phases
occurred due to a reduced matrix support. The wear occurred
principally due to the loss of some carbide grains and crack
formation along a few carbide grain boundaries. Typical microcracks that are formed in the grooves is shown in Fig. 11. The
carbide loss occurred due to the plugging out of carbide grains
because of weakened bonding to the binder phase. The coefcients of friction during sliding wear when the MSC coated
samples slid against EN32 and EN32C discs are shown in
Fig. 12. It is evident that the coefcient of friction initially
increases rapidly, decreases nearly to 500 m sliding distance and
increases slowly and it is almost maintained the coefcient of
friction values at similar levels. MSC samples tested against
EN32C showed higher coefcient of frictional values and resulted
in less wear, whereas MSC samples slid against EN32 disc at 2 kg
load, exhibited lower coefcient of friction values. This is due to
adhesion between the sample and the disc playing a signicant
role and also possibly due to (i) the interface heating increases

with increase in applied load, (ii) higher temperature making the

matrix material softer thus increasing the owability of matrix
material increases, (iii) greater degree of MML formation and
nally greater extent of surface smoothening at higher applied
load and (iv) greater degree of surface smoothening of the counter
surface due to greater degree of material transfer from the
counter surface to the specimen.
The EDS map (Fig. 13A) shows that the tribo lm surface is rich
in Fe (transfreed from steel) and low in Co that are uniformly
mixed. The presence of ner WC particles embedded in the lm
provides the cutting edges on the surface for the increased wear
of steel disc with increase in sliding distance. Fig. 13(B) shows the
EDS map of worn surface indicating the ne WC particles are
embedded in Fe-rich matrix. The corresponding EDS analysis of
the mapped region indicated that the surface predominantly rich
in both Fe and W, constitutes 85% of total concentration, which
proves that the steel is getting adhered to the coating. The
softness of cobalt is due to disintegration during the adhesive
wear process enabling the formation of free WC particles which
again get embedded in the Fe rich matrix.
3.3. Effect of temperature
Fig. 14a and b shows the temperature attained in the specimen
as a function of sliding distance. Initially the temperature
increased rapidly up to  500 m (critical distance) of sliding

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V. Rajinikanth, K. Venkateswarlu / Tribology International 44 (2011) 17111719

porosity) WC coating may be used for protection against wear

under dry sliding conditions.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr S. Srikanth, Director, NML,
Jamshedpur, for his kind permission to publish this paper. Thanks
to Mr S.C. Modi, Managing Director, M/S Metallising Company,
Jodhpur for his critical comments. We are thankful to
Mr. M.K. Gunjan and Mr. B. Mahato for extending SEM and XRD
studies, respectively. Critical review and corrections made by
Dr.V.R. Ranganath, Scientist of CSIR-NAL, Bangalore is sincerely
acknowledged.
Fig. 14. (a) and (b) Temperature attained in the specimen as a function of sliding
distance.

followed by a moderate trend. The critical distance increased with

increase in applied load. Fig. 14 also shows that the maximum
temperature recorded increased with increase in applied load,
possibly due to greater dissipation of frictional power. The
variation in temperature recorded could be reasoned by the
following mechanism. The contact between specimen and counter surface at an applied load is limited to contacts between the
asperities of opposing surfaces. The frictional heat generated in
dry sliding between the surfaces conducts away through opposing
asperities in contact. Since the true contact area between opposing asperities is smaller than the apparent contact area, the
frictional energy and the resulting heat becomes highly concentrated at these contacts. The frictional power to sustain sliding is
dissipated in the form of heat over the small contact areas of the
asperities causing a rise in temperature of the sliding surfaces.
When the load is increased greater dissipation of frictional power
occurs in order to sustain the sliding, which in turn results in rise
of temperature. It is believed that the temperature of the sliding
surface is still slightly higher in comparison to the measurement
point and the released heat can have an important inuence on
friction and wear levels. Nevertheless, structural changes of
cermets do not take place at such temperatures [26].

4. Conclusions
In addition to the spraying parameters, the carbide size and
the degree of decomposition of WC strongly inuence the microstructural properties of the coating. Dry sliding wear test performed on MS specimen showed high wear loss when slid against
EN32 disc and EN32C disc. Under the same sliding conditions,
when slid against EN32 disc the MSC specimen gained weight,
signifying the transfer of worn particles due to severe cutting of
the counter surface. The formation of transfer lm and the
removal of particles from the transfer layers as debris counter
balanced each other to maintain constancy in the thickness of
lm. Hence, the thickness of the transfer lm remained approximately constant at a particular load but increased with increase in
applied load.
The strength and stability of the transfer lm to sustain sliding
conditions depends on the ductility of the binder phase, cobalt.
Cobalt owing to its appreciable ductility promoted the formation
of dense transfer lm, which showed good adherence under dry
sliding conditions. It may be concluded that the equilibrium rate
of lm transfer to the disc may be due to the loss of wear particles
as debris during sliding motion. Thus, HVOF sprayed dense (low

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