Wear and Oxidation Behaviour of Tungsten Carbide Based Coatings: A Review

Abstract

Failure of components under severe environment caused by the diversity of wear mechanisms and oxidation necessitated to understand, which is fundamental to estimate durability and reliability of coatings. Abrasive and erosion wear contributed to the maximum failure rate encountered in real life situations. In high-temperature applications, oxidation leads to deterioration in desired properties which causes premature failure of machine or system components. Tungsten carbide (WC) based coatings serve with both types of wears and furthermore deals with high-temperature serviceability. Among the pure metals tungsten exhibits uppermost relative abrasive and erosion resistance which provides the base for utilization of WC based coatings for severe wear applications. The emphasis of this review is on wear and oxidation performance of tungsten carbide based coatings developed by different thermal spray techniques.

Keywords: Tungsten carbide coatings, abrasive wear, erosion wear