An Investigation into the Erosion Wear Behavior of Fe Inter-layered Ceramic Coatings on Boron Carbide Reinforced Al Alloy Composites by High Velocity Oxygen Fuel Technique

HVOF coating has been sprayed on boron carbide reinforced (5 wt.%) Al-1200 grade composites with varying coating thickness and tested for their wear behavior. The density and micro- hardness of the coatings have been evaluated. It has been found that both these properties increase with increase in coating thickness. The air erosion wear test has been conducted on air erosion tester using steady state approach. Erodent size of 300-600 µm has been used in the study. The steady state experiments indicated that the greatest Specific Erosion Rate is at 90° and minimum at 30°. Also, the Specific Erosion Rate increased with increase in the velocity and decrease with the increase in the thickness of the coatings. Thereafter, Taguchi (L₁₆) orthogonal array is utilized in order to optimize the input parameters. The input parameters are impact velocities of 30, 40, 50 and 60 m/s, Erodent feed rate of1, 2, 3 and 4 gm/min. and impact angle of 30 \(^\circ \) ${}^{\circ }$ , 45 \(^\circ \) ${}^{\circ }$ , 60 \(^\circ \) ${}^{\circ }$ and 90 \(^\circ \) ${}^{\circ }$ . Coating thickness is also varied at four different levels. The results from Taguchi experiments find the order of dominance of control factors as: Velocity > Angle > Erodent feed rate > FCCT. Coatings have exhibited a semi- ductile wear behavior.