Three body abrasive wear characteristics of plasma sprayed conventional and nanostructured Al2O3-13%TiO2 coatings

In this paper, the conventional Metco130 coatings, and two kinds of nanostructured coatings (NP and NS coatings) were fabricated by plasma spray with different feed powders. The coatings were evaluated by indentation, scratch and three body abrasive wear tests. The NP coating sprayed with plasma densified feed powder had the highest hardness, crack growth resistance and scratch resistance. Test results exhibited that the nanostructured coatings had greatly improved three body abrasive wear resistance compared with conventional coatings. The three body abrasive wear resistance of NP coatings was about three times that of conventional coatings. The failure mode in scratch tests and wear mechanism of three coatings were also discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.