Ultra wear resistant TiC-Fe coating prepared by high efficient and economic plasma cladding method

The key components of engineering machinery frequently failed due to working in the high load and high wear operating environment. And the performance of the Fe-based alloy coatings typically employed need to be improved for fulfilling the service requirements. Herein, a TiC strengthened Fe-based alloy cladding layer, named TiC-Fe coating, was designed and prepared by plasma cladding technology. The frictional wear performance of coating under various loads was tested. The wear morphology of the coating was observed, and its wear mechanism was examined. The results indicated that the TiC-Fe coating was well formed and metallurgically bonded to the Q345C substrate. Its microstructure mainly consisted of Fe-Cr solid solution, α-Fe phase, (Fe, Cr)₇C₃ phase and TiC phase. The coating exhibited an average microhardness of 980 HV0.2, which was about 5.4 times that of the Q345C substrate. The wear mass loss of the TiC-Fe coatings was much smaller than that of the Q345C substrate, which indicated that the wear resistance of the Q345C coating was superior to the substrate, and the wear mechanism of the coating was mainly attributed to the abrasive wear.