Effect of NiAl Bond Layer on the Wear Resistance of an Austenitic Stainless Steel Coating Obtained by Arc Spray Process

The present investigation has been conducted to study the tribological and adhesion properties of X10CrNi18-8 austenitic stainless steel (ASTM 301) coatings deposited on aluminum alloys such as AU4G by using the arc-spraying process. These coatings were made with and without a bond-coat layer, which is constituted by NiAl. The structure of the phases that are present in coatings was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The measurements of microhardness and tribological behavior at different loads were also performed on the surface of the coatings. Adherence test was also carried out using four-point bending tests. The SEM showed that the dense microstructures of coatings have a homogeneous lamellar morphology with the presence of porosities and unmelted particles. The main phase of coating corresponds to a solid solution as a face-centered cubic (fcc). The microhardness of coatings is nearly four times that of the two substrates of aluminum alloys. The four-point bending test results showed that the NiAl bond layer increases the critical interfacial fracture energy G_IC, the force to share the multilayer is more important.