Porosity and wear resistance of flame

sprayed tungsten carbide coatings

Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1855, 030012 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4985482
Published Online: 15 June 2017

Winarto Winarto, Nofrijon Sofyan, and Didi Rooscote

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AIP Conference Proceedings 1855, 030012 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4985482 1855, 030012

© 2017 Author(s).
 Porosity and Wear Resistance of Flame Sprayed Tungsten
Carbide Coatings
Winarto Winarto1, a), Nofrijon Sofyan1 and Didi Rooscote
1
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok - 16424, Indonesia.
a)
Corresponding author: winarto@metal.ui.ac.id

Abstract. Thermal-sprayed coatings offer practical and economical solutions for corrosion and wear protection of
components or tools. To improve the coating properties, heat treatment such as preheat is applied. The selection of
coating and substrate materials is a key factor in improving the quality of the coating morphology after the heat
treatment. This paper presents the experimental results regarding the effect of preheat temperatures, i.e. 200ºC, 300ºC and
400ºC, on porosity and wear resistance of tungsten carbide (WC) coating sprayed by flame thermal coating. The powders
and coatings morphology were analyzed by a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with Energy
Dispersive Spectrometry (FE-SEM/EDS), whereas the phase identification was performed by X-Ray diffraction
technique (XRD). In order to evaluate the quality of the flame spray obtained coatings, the porosity, micro-hardness and
wear rate of the specimens was determined. The results showed that WC coating gives a higher surface hardness from
1391 HVN up to 1541 HVN compared to that of the non-coating. Moreover, the wear rate increased from 0.072
mm3/min. to 0.082 mm3/min. when preheat temperature was increased. Preheat on H13 steel substrate can reduce the
percentage of porosity level from 10.24 % to 3.94% on the thermal spray coatings.

INTRODUCTION
Tool steel material of H13 is one of the wear-resistant materials that is widely used in various applications such
as forging mold, extrusion, hot presses, cutting components and plunger. In the operating conditions, tool steels are
subjected to face severe wear, corrosion and high temperature oxidation. In order to prevent the failure resulting
from the operating conditions, the protective layer or hard coating is used in a wide range of wear resistant
applications and in a variety of conditions including sliding, fretting, abrasion and erosion. Hard particles such as
WC, Ni and Cr can be used to achieve surface conditions due to their high hardness [1].
Today, metal flame spray is commonly used in surface coating technology due to its good adhesive properties,
high wear resistance and economical in terms of cost in the process [2]. The use of this method is generally to
increase the lifespan of a component so that the level of repair or replacement of material can be minimized. Some
of the advantages gained by using this method include increasing some mechanical properties such as hardness of
the material surface, increasing the wear resistance of the materials, and improving the corrosion resistance by
creating a barrier between the metal and its environment.
Thermal spraying is a coating process in which a coating material is heated quickly in a hot gaseous medium to
become molten or semi-molten and at the same time projected at high velocity onto a substrate surface to develop a
desired coating. The coating material may be melted either by electric or flame heating. However, because the
method with electricity is more expensive in economic terms, the use of flame heating method is more common in
several applications [3]. It has been revealed that for thermally sprayed coatings, porosity occurs during the spraying
process that affects the microstructure with a simultaneous decrease in the hardness and the wear resistance of the
materials. This occurrence depends on deposition conditions, which are characterized by high temperature, a
generally oxidizing atmosphere and high cooling rates. In this event, the sprayed material is subjected to complex
physical and chemical transformations. Several studies have also revealed that during the spraying of WC, a part of
WC is transformed into WC1-x, W2C and metallic tungsten [4], while another part is dissolved in the form of

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carbides [5]. The stage of these transformations depends on the spraying method, the operating parameters [6] and
the powder properties [7].
The present investigation is focused on the effect of preheat temperatures i.e. 200ºC, 300ºC and 400ºC on the
porosity and wear resistance of WC coatings sprayed by flame thermal coating. A comparison between the
microstructures in the coating with different preheating is presented in an attempt to understand the phenomena
occur during spraying and in particular how to minimize the porosity of the coating.

EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
A commercial WC powder (TungTec 10112) was used for the coating. Chemical composition of the powder is
shown in Table 1. Metal plates (tool steel of H13) with an initial hardness of 46 HRC and a dimension of 30 mm x
30 mm x 10 mm were used as substrates. Before the coating process, the surfaces of substrates were cleaning to
remove oxides and other impurities. The surfaces of substrates were then preheated at temperature variations of
200ºC, 300ºC and 400ºC followed by the flame spray coating on the surfaces of the substrates to obtain a
metallurgical bonding between the base material and the coating. The steel substrates material and the equipment of
flame spray for metal coating are presented in Fig. 1.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 1. Sample of H13 steel substrate (a) and a machine of flame spray for metal coating (b)

The WC coating powder was characterized using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) to
investigate the morphology of the powder particles. The XRD test was conducted to reveal the effect of the variation
preheat temperature on the coating product through the presence of any elements or compounds in the matrix of
coating. Other tests were performed including microstructure of the coating, transverse surface microhardness of the
coating and surface wear testing by using the Ogoshi wear machine.
Wear testing was conducted to determine the response of the load friction material and to see the effect of WC
coating on the wear failures. Wear testing was performed by using the standard testing methods of Ogoshi, which
employs a rotating disc with a diameter of 30 mm and a load of 3.16 kg with an abrasion speed of 1.97 m/s at a
distance of 100 m within 40 seconds.

RESULT

Powder Morphology and Phase Identification

Figure 2 (a) shows a secondary electron image of WC powder used as coating materials. It is seen that the
morphology of the powder particles shows a sphere shape uniformly dispersed in the nickel matrix. These sphere
particles are the WC-carbide; in which with its high hardness presents a significant improvement in the mechanical
properties such as hardness and surface wear. The measurement distribution of particle size on WC powders
(TungTec 10112) shows that WC carbide particles have a size range of 64-140 μm.

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 (a)
(b)
FIGURE 2. (a) Secondary electron image of TungTec 10112 powder morphology and (b) The XRD pattern of TungTec 10112
powder

Figure 2 (b) shows a pattern of XRD test resulting from the TungTec 10112 powder. This pattern was analyzed
to obtain the peaks and the phases present in the powders. The results indicate the presence of the phases within the
particles and the matrix. The highest peak is located at the position of 2-theta = 39.678 which belongs to W2C.
Tungsten carbide particles consist of WC and W2C. These particles have the same crystal structure but at different 2-
theta positions. Both of WC and W2C have a cell volume of 20.83 and 36.54, respectively. W2C is a result of
decarburizes of the WC [8, 9]. Besides, there are also phases of nickel, chromium, boron and silicon with a high
enough intensity, which are in agreement with the mill certificate.

Coating Morphology
Figure 3 shows transversal surface microstructure images of the specimen WC with preheating temperature
variations. To reveal the microstructure, the specimen was etched with a nital 3% and the microstructure was taken
under an optical microscope. The bar scale is given in each of the image. The images show that the metal flame
spray coating consists of WC particles containing porosity. Coating thickness of the specimen at preheating 200ºC,
300ºC, and 400ºC are ȝPȝP, and 343 μm, respectively. The increasing preheating temperature results in
decreasing the amount of porosity in the coating. This result is an agreement with other result obtained by Zoran
[10] in which the layer thickness range of the metal spray method using oxy-acetylene flame has an average
thickness of 0.3 to 0.4 mm.

(a) (b) (C)

FIGURE 3. Macrostructure of WC coating with preheating of (a) 200 C, (b) 300 C and (c) 400OC
O O

Figure 4 shows secondary electron image of the specimen preheated at 300qC. The figure shows a layer
consisting of dispersed WC particles and porosity. In order to identify the elements present in the coating, EDS
examination was carried out and the results according to the number given in Fig. 4 can be seen in Table 1.

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 FIGURE 4. The spot location of the energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) test on WC coating at preheating of 300qC

TABLE 1. Weight percentage of elements on WC Coating with preheating of 300qC.

Table 1 shows the results of testing specimens with EDS on WC coating with preheating 300ºC. As can be seen
in the figure, the white area is the WC particles as indicated by the dominant content of W and C shown in point
number of 3, 4 and 6. The gray area is a nickel matrix shown in spectrum 5 and 7 wherein the Ni content is the most
dominant. The content of C is high due to the presence of WC and CrxCy at participating matrix. Spectra 1 and 2 are
the interfacial area dominated by high Fe content followed by some alloying elements on a substrate such as Cr, Mo
and V. To reveal the distribution of elements on the layer and the substrate, the elemental mapping of the coating
was performed and the result is shown in Figure 5. The content of WC appears to be distributed evenly in layers.
The content of O indicates the presence of the porosity, while Cr spreads evenly to the H13 steel substrate. The
content of C and B shows an intensity on the surface layer, which is expected to form a hard compound that can
increase the hardness and wear resistance of the coating. Si content has a high intensity on the particles WC. This Si
seems to envelop tungsten particles together with nickel matrix.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 5. The result of mapping elements on WC Coating with preheating of 300 0C

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 DISCUSSION

Hardness Distribution and Wear Properties

Figure 6 (a) shows a graph of micro-hardness influenced by the preheat temperature. Increasing number of WC
presence in the coating seems too increase the micro hardness, which is expected to increase the wear of the tool
steel surface. This result is in agreement with the research result conducted by Wang and Franch [8, 9], who showed
that the presence of WC particles can increase the hardness and wear resistance.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 6. The graph of hardness distribution on WC Coating and (b) Wear resistance of WC Coating vs. Preheating.

Figure 6 (b) shows a graph of the influence of preheat on the wear resistance of the coating specimen. Increasing
of wear resistance is due to the presence of WC on the surface, which provides a barrier between the substrate with
the environment. In this event, objects in contact with the substrate are protected by a layer of WC beforehand that
caused the lost volume decreases and thus increases the wear resistance of the surface of the tool steel

Porosity Level
Figure 7 shows a graph of preheating temperature of the substrate on the level of porosity formed in the layers.
In the sample of WC with preheating 200ºC porosity percentage is around 10.24%, at preheating of 300ºC porosity
percentage is about 7.59%, while the percentage of porosity with the preheating of 400ºC is around 3.94%. The
results showed that the increasing in preheat temperature from 200ºC to 400ºC will decrease the wear resistance of
the substrate. Increasing the preheating temperature will reduce the trapped air within the coating. This can be
understood since the condition of the substrate still hot so that the solidification of molten coating will be slow.
Porosity in large quantities on the coating will cause the propagation towards underneath, thereby weakening the
bond of cohesion between the particles. Therefore, the optimal result would be such that the porosity of the coating
is in very small amounts.

FIGURE 7. The graph of percentage of porosity on the WC coating with different preheating temperatures.

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 CONCLUSION

x WC coating as a top coat with oxy-acetylene flame spray can improve the micro hardness of H13 steel
surface with an optimized value of up to 1541 HVN at preheat temperature of 300ºC.
x The value of the wear rate increased from 0.072 mm3/min. into 0.082 mm3/min when preheat temperature
was increased from 200ºC to 400ºC.
x The percentage of porosity level can be reduced from 10.24 % to 3.94% by the thermal spray coatings
when preheat temperature was increased from 200ºC to 400ºC.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to acknowledge the Directorate of Research and Public Services, Universitas Indonesia
for the financial support for this study through the PITTA Research Grant in 2016.

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