Abrasive wear resistance of plasma-sprayed glass-composite coatings

摘要

A ball-milled mixture of glass and alumina powders has been plasma sprayed to produce alumina-glass composite coatings. The coatings have the unique advantage of a melted, ceramic secondary phase parallel to the surface in an aligned plateletlike-composite structure. The alumina raises the hardness from 300 HV for pure glass coatings to 900 HV for a 60 wt.% alumina-glass composite coating. The scratch resistance increases by a factor of 3, and the wear resistance increases by a factor of 5. The glass wears by the formation and intersection of cracks, while the alumina wears by line abrasion and supports most of the sliding load. The wear resistance reaches a maximum at 40 to 50 vol.% alumina, above which there is little further improvement. This critical alumina content corresponds to the changeover from a glass to a ceramic matrix.