JTTEE5 20:1292–1309

DOI: 10.1007/s11666-011-9686-1
1059-9630/$19.00  ASM International
Peer Reviewed

HVOF-Deposited WCCoCr as Replacement

for Hard Cr in Landing Gear Actuators
A. Agüero, F. Camón, J. Garcı´a de Blas, J.C. del Hoyo, R. Muelas, A. Santaballa, S. Ulargui, and P. Vallés

(Submitted August 10, 2010; in revised form May 6, 2011)

WCCoCr coatings deposited by HVOF can replace hard Cr on landing gear components. Powders with
two different WC particle sizes (micro and nano-) and geometries have been employed to study the
effects on the coatingÕs properties. Moreover, coatings produced employing two sets of parameters
resulting in high and low flame temperatures have been evaluated. Minor differences in microstructure
and morphology were observed for the two powders employing the same spraying parameters, but the
nano-sized powder exhibited a higher spraying efficiency. However, more significant microstructural
changes result when the low- and high-energy spray parameters are used. Moreover, results of various
tests which include adhesion, wear, salt fog corrosion resistance, liquid immersion, and axial fatigue
strength, indicate that the coatings produced with high-energy flame are similar in behavior. On the other
hand, the nanostructured low-energy flame coating exhibited a significantly lower salt fog corrosion
resistance.

Keywords adhesion, coatings, fatigue, hard Cr replacement,

chromic acid tiny droplets into the air. In addition,
HVOF, landing gear, liquid immersion, micro- CrVI-contaminated rinse water must also be properly
structure, morphology, particle size, salt fog cor- cleaned and disposed of, respecting regulations that not
rosion, WCCoCr, wear resistance only vary from country to country but also are becoming
more and more stringent. These issues have driven the
production prices, related to workers’ protection and waste
disposal, to very high levels. For instance, in the Unites
States, OSHA established a permissible exposure limit
1. Introduction (PEL) of 5 lg/m3 in 2006 (Ref 3). If, as expected, this limit
is further reduced, the cost associated with the measures
Owing to their excellent wear resistance, electrode- required to reach the new PEL will be in excess of several
posited hard Cr coatings have been extensively used since millions of dollars per year. Furthermore, in the Nether-
many years for a wide variety of applications, including lands and the UK, there is already a pending legislation to
bushing pins, printing and corrugating rolls, ball valves, reduce the PEL to 1.5 and 0.5 lg/m3, respectively.
machine tools, fittings, hydraulic cylinders, rotating shafts, Research for new coating solutions has been extensive,
bearing journals, aircraft landing gear, pistons, undersea yielding several potential alternatives. Essentially, the
oilfield equipment, etc. (Ref 1). Astonishingly, although alternative coatings to hard Cr must be wear resistant, and
these coatings have been industrially employed since about moreover, the mechanical properties of the alternative
1937, there is archeological evidence of the use hard Cr material-coated components, such as fatigue strength,
coatings 2200 years ago. For instance, a sword discovered must be the same or better than those of said components
in Emperor Quin Xi HuangÕs mausoleum in XiÕan, China coated with hard Cr. In addition, the new coatings must be
was found to have a 10-15-lm layer (Fig. 1). Hard Cr resistant to environmental corrosion and to the attack of
coatings have been critical, up to present, for aircrafts, fluids commonly used on aircrafts, which may spill and
automotive components, and ships, both civil and military. therefore enter in contact with the coated components, so
However, there are crucial environmental and health that their surface is not modified with the consequent
issues related to the presence of hexavalent Cr (CrVI) losses in performance. Presently, carbide-based cermet
from chromic acid, used during the plating process. CrVI is coatings have exhibited the best results, especially in
known to be carcinogenic and to cause a wide array of manufacturing and maintenance operations on military
medical problems (Ref 2). Moreover, the plating process and civil aircrafts for components such as landing gears,
produces gas bubbles, responsible of the dispersion of propellers and hydraulic actuators (Ref 4). Deposited by
high velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) thermal spray, these coat-
ings are dense and exhibit very high adhesive strength and
microhardness. HVOF is widely used in thermal spray
A. Agüero, F. Camón, J. Garcı́a de Blas, J.C. del Hoyo,
technology by which particles are heated and propelled at
R. Muelas, A. Santaballa, S. Ulargui, and P. Vallés, Instituto
Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Ctra. Ajalvir Km 4, very high velocities (>1 mach) resultant from the internal
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. Contact e-mails: combustion of oxygen and fuel (propylene, kerosene,
[email protected] and [email protected]. natural gas, hydrogen, etc.) and from the spray gun special

1292—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

 parameters on the coating microstructure and behavior have

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been studied employing two different sets of parameters
resulting in high- and low-energy flames. Extensive charac-
terization, as well as a number of tests were carried out to
determine the influence of the microstructure and deposition
parameters in the coating behavior, as well as to validate their
performance as replacements for hard Cr on landing gear
actuators. Characterization includes determination of mi-
crohardness, porosity, residual stresses, microstructure and
phase composition of the coatings, and a comparison of the
spraying efficiency obtained from both powders, whereas
testing comprises adhesion, salt fog corrosion resistance,
stability in liquids commonly employed on and around air-
crafts, wear resistance, and axial fatigue strength. An indus-
trially produced electrolytic hard chromium coating and 4340
steel as base material, was also tested as reference.

2. Experimental Section
Fig. 1 2200-year-old sword coated with 10-15 lm of Cr found in
Emperor Quin Xi HuangÕs mausoleum in XiÕan, China 2.1 Materials
Low-alloy steel 4340 (0.41C-0.73Mn-0.8Cr-1.74Ni-
design. In particular, WCCoCr deposited by HVOF has 0.25Mo-0.25Si, wt.%) was obtained from Corus, United
been chosen as one the best candidates for landing gear Kingdom. Specimens with geometries appropriate for each
components and a large number of groups worldwide have of the tests were machined and heat treated by GUTMAR,
been studying it and testing this material for diverse Spain. The ultimate tensile strength (rus) was 1200 MPa.
applications (Ref 5-10). It exhibits, in most situations, a Electrolytic hard chromium was deposited by CESA (Spain)
superior wear performance than electrolytic hard Cr, according to standard QQC320 or MILSTD1501. WCCoCr
similar or according to some authors, better corrosion powders Sulzer 5847 and Woka 3653 (A and B respectively)
resistance (Ref 8, 11), and it does not affect the fatigue were obtained from Sulzer Metco Europe GmbH.
strength of the material. The coating is composed of WC
particles in a matrix of Co with some Cr, and it also
exhibits large features (5-10 lm) very rich in Cr. Cr is 2.2 Coating Deposition
added to increase the atmospheric corrosion resistance. WCCoCr coatings were deposited employing a Sulzer
However, there are several types of powders of this Metco Diamond Jet Hybrid HVOF unit (A-3120) moun-
material available in the market, which exhibit different ted on a six-axis robot (ABB) and fed by a twin rotation
coating efficiencies (during spraying) and also resulting in powder feeder. The spraying parameters for the three
different coating microstructures. One important charac- different studied coatings are shown in Table 1. Before
teristic of the powder is the WC particle size and is known, coating, the specimens were grit blasted. Temperature
for instance, that if nano-sized WC particles are employed, measurement during coating was carried out by means of a
the corresponding coatings exhibit higher hardness and calibrated Minolta/Land Cyclops 300AF infrared ther-
wear resistance (Ref 12-15). The HVOF spraying param- mometer placed inside the deposition booth at a distance
eters are as well crucial in determining the quality of the of approximately 750 mm from the component. The
deposits and also influence the temperature reached by temperature was measured directly on the surface of the
the component when it is being sprayed. This is critical specimens, which were placed on appropriate sample
especiallyfor landing gear actuators made of high strength holders. Particle velocity and temperature during spraying
steels (4340, for instance) which are shot peened to was measured by spray plume monitoring with Accura-
increase their fatigue strength, as its effect is lost if the spray-g3 (Sulzer Metco).
component reaches temperatures higher that 177 C (Ref
16). Moreover, the powder particles geometry may also
affect both the resulting coating microstructure as well as
2.3 Microstructure and Composition
the process as, for instance, it has been shown that The microstructure and composition of the coatings
spherical particles have better flowability (Ref 17). was determined employing a scanning electron micro-
WCCoCr coatings, produced from two different com- scope (SEM) JEOL JSM 840 equipped with an energy
mercial powders with different powder grain geometries as dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) KEVEX MICRO-
well as WC particle size within each grain, have been ANALYST 8000 which uses a signal processor RÖNTEC.
deposited on 4340 low-alloy steel. The coatings, as well as a The porosity of the coatings as well as the phase com-
commercial electrolytic hard Cr coating, have been charac- position was determined employing the LEICA Q550 MW
terized and tested. Moreover, the influence of the coatings image analysis program.

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1293

 Table 1 HVOF spray parameters
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Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Powder feeder Spray distance, Transverse

l/min l/min l/min rate, g/min mm speed, mm/s

Coating A 214 344 635 38 230 1256

Coating B 214 344 635 38 230 1256
Coating B0 214 600 360 38 230 1256

Table 2 Rating criteria for the SALT FOG corrosion test

Range 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Defects area, % 0 0-0.1 0.1-0.25 0.25-0.5 0.5-1 1-2.5 2.5-5 5-10 10-25 25-50 >50

The chemical composition of the powders was deter- coatings (minimum thickness of 200 lm), employing a
mined by a combination of two methods. Carbon was 300 g load.
determined by combustion employing a LECO CS-444
analyzer. The rest of the elements were measured by 2.6 Adhesion Measurement
X-ray fluorescence spectrometry employing a PHILIPS
FRX PW2404 equipment. Quantification was carried out 2.6.1 Bend Testing. Bend testing was carried out accord-
employing the semiquantitative IQ + He WIN method ing to AMS 2447 using three specimens (100 9 50 9 2 mm)
developed by PHILIPS to which the previously obtained coated on one side. The specimens were bent 90 around a
carbon content was added. 8-mm Ø mandrel with the coated side on the outside of the
X-ray diffraction (XRD) was carried out in a Panalyt- bend, and examined visually. If cracks appeared, attempts
ical XÕPert PRO MRD equipment with Cu Ka radiation at were made to remove the coating by means of a sharp blade.
45 KV and 40 mA. The scanning speed and scanning step Cracking or peeling near the edges was not considered or
were 2.4/min and 0.02, respectively. Quantification by taken into account when evaluating the bent specimen.
means of the Rietveld method (Ref 18) was carried out 2.6.2 Bond Strength Measurement. The bond strength
employing the XÕPERT HIGHSCORE PLUS software measurement was carried out according to ASTM C 633,
which includes a database. ‘‘Adhesion or cohesion strength of thermal spray coat-
The composition of the coatings as a function of depth ings.’’ The test was performed on a Universal Test
was determined by glow discharge spectrometry (GDS) by Machine by constantly increasing the tensile load at
means of a LECO GDS 850A equipment employing 0.017 mm/s employing HTK Ultrabond 100 as adhesive.
30 mA and 800 V. The hard Cr-coated samples were machined to 0.4 lm Ra,
while WCCoCr was tested as deposited.
2.4 Residual Stress
2.7 Salt Fog Corrosion Testing
The coatings were evaluated by preparing and spraying
a standard Almen Type ‘‘N’’ specimen strip with identical The salt fog corrosion testing was carried out according
parameters as the coating being evaluated. The Almen test to ASTM-B-117. Five 150 9 75 mm specimens per coating
is employed to determine shot peening intensities by are exposed to a mist generated from a 5 wt.% NaCl
measuring the curvature caused by peening on a stan- aqueous solution (pH within 6.5-7.2) at 35 C for a total of
dardized flat coupon. This measure is related to the stresses 1056 h. Before coating the specimens, edges and backside
generated on the coupon by the process and can also be were masked with a suitable corrosion-protective paint.
used to evaluate the relative residual stresses imparted to The coupons were visually inspected and assigned a pro-
the substrate-coating system during thermal spraying (Ref tection rating according to ASTM-B-537-70 (see Table 2)
16). The curvature of the Almen strip was less than every 24 h. The rating reported for each condition is the
0.051 mm (arc height) when measured before coating. average of those obtained for the five tested specimens. If
After coating, measurements were carried out with the the rating was lower than 3, the specimen was mechanically
convex surface facing up and employing a standard Almen cleaned by means of a ‘‘Scotch Brite’’-type pad to elimi-
gage (AMS S13165). During coating, the strip was nate corrosion products, and the samples were rated again.
restrained in a flat position by four screws as indicated in
AMS S13165. The reported normalized value was obtained 2.8 Liquid Immersion Resistance
from the difference between the measures taken from the Three coated coupons (25.4 9 25.4 9 0.8 mm) were
coated and uncoated strips, according to AMS 2447. totally immersed on each of the liquids and temperatures
indicated in Table 3. The liquids were chosen among the
2.5 Hardness Measurements most currently employed in aircrafts. The samples were
Vickers microhardnesses were measured according to held vertically and were inspected and weighted every
ASTM E 384 using a Future Tech FM system, from 10 24 h, removing the liquid by means of a solvent appro-
evenly spaced indentations on the cross section of the priate for the corresponding liquid for a total of 168 h. At

1294—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

Table 3 Fluids and temperatures employed  790 MPa (66%rus), 750 MPa (63%rus), 710 MPa

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for the immersion test (59%rus), and 670 MPa (56%rus), for uncoated 4340;
Temperature
Fluid Type (±2 °C) The average surface roughnesses (Ra) of specimens
were
MIL-L-23699 Oil lubricant 70
JP-8 Fuel 70  Specimens of base material (40 HRC): Ra = 0.65 lm;
Skydrol LD4 Hydraulic 70
MIL-PRF-87257 Hydraulic 70
 Specimens coated with hard Cr: Ra = 0.90 lm;
PD-680 Type II Degreaser 23  Specimens with B coating: Ra = 4.30 lm (as sprayed)
Propylene glycol/water 1:3 (V) Antifreeze 23
All surface roughness data were obtained using a
Table 4 Rating criteria for the liquid immersion test Taylor Hobson Form Talysurf Profilometer using a
0.8 mm cut-off.
0 Without detectable bleaching or corrosion The fatigue experimental program was performed on
1 Light corrosion and/or bleaching up to 5%
of the surface round specimens with continuous radius between ends,
2 Light corrosion and/or bleaching up to 10% machined according to Fig. 2. The stress was determined
of the surface taking into consideration the coating thickness.
3 Light corrosion and/or bleaching up to 25%
of the surface
4 Light corrosion and/or bleaching up to 25%
of the surface and/or presence of pits 3. Results

each inspection, a protection rating is attributed as shown 3.1 Powder Characterization

in Table 4. Figure 3 shows the microstructure of the two starting
powders, whereas Table 5 includes the corresponding
2.9 Wear Test compositions (in wt.%). Agglomerated and sintered,
powder A (Sulzer 5847) has a grain size distribution of
Wear testing was carried out by means of a ball-on-disk
53 + 11 lm. It is composed of irregular spheres with
tribometer (CSEM). The test conditions were the follow-
lower W and higher Cr and Co contents and a significantly
ing: applied load, 10 N; sliding distance, 1000 m; sliding
WC higher particle size than powder B, oscillating be-
speed, 10 cm/s; temperature, (23 ± 2) C; and relative
tween 2 and 8 lm (the largest particle dimension). It also
humidity, (35 ± 5)%. Alumina balls (6.35 mm Ø) with
exhibits the Cr-rich features mentioned earlier, typical of
surface roughnesses within the range 0.07-0.1 lm Ra and
this commercial powder. Powder B (Woka 3653) also
hardness ranging between 1650 and 1800 HV were
agglomerated and sintered is spheroidal in shape with a
employed. The coated specimens were finished to
grain size distribution of 45 + 11 lm. In this case, the WC
0.1-0.2 lm Ra. The wear test results were calculated by a
particles size fall between 100 nm and 3 lm. XRD also
Taylor Hobson Form Talysurf Profilometer.
indicated differences in the composition of the two pow-
ders as shown in Fig. 4 and Table 6 where the diffraction
2.10 Axial Fatigue Strength patterns and the phase composition (according to the
For the axial fatigue strength test, a sinusoidal load of Rietveld method) are respectively included. Both powders
20 Hz with load ratio of R = 1, at room temperature exhibit peaks corresponding mostly to WC with very small
(23 ± 2 C) and 35 ± 3% humidity was applied through- peaks that can be assigned to W, Co, and g phases
out this study. Experimental tests consider as fatigue W3Co3C or W6Co6C. The peaks attributed to either of
strength the specimen fracture or 5 9 106 load cycles. The those two phases are slightly shifted likely because of the
test was performed on two MTS computer-controlled presence of Cr in the lattice. According to Berger et al.,
servohydraulic axial fatigue testing machines, according to the g phase peaks are attributed to W3Co3C (Ref 19)
the ASTM E466 standard. whereas other authors, for instance, Verdon et al. attribute
The samples were not shot peened before coating and/ them to W6Co6C (Ref 20). According to the Rietveld
or testing. Three groups of fatigue specimens were pre- analysis, powder A appears to have more crystalline
pared to obtain S-N curves: matrix phases, whereas powder B is richer in the carbide
phases. The g phases could not be quantified by this
 24 specimens of 4340; method because the corresponding diffraction patterns
 12 specimens of 4340 hard Cr coated; have not been included in the database employed for the
 24 specimens of WCCoCr (coating B) coated 4340. analysis.

Four stress levels were chosen for the tests: 3.2 Deposition Process
 670 MPa (56%rus), 620 MPa (52%rus), 570 MPa One of the main difficulties related to HVOF coating
(47%rus), and 520 MPa (43%rus), for hard Cr and deposition on landing gear components is the heat transfer
WCCoCr samples; from the flame to the components, which as already

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1295

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Fig. 2 Fatigue specimens. All the dimensions are in mm. (a) Drawing and (b) as WCCoCr sprayed

mentioned, need to be shot peened before coating to maximize the spraying efficiency and optimize the coating
increase their fatigue strength, especiallywhen coated with quality (coating B0 ).
electrolytic hard Cr (Ref 16). If the component surface During spraying, the samplesÕ temperatures were mea-
reaches temperatures higher than a critical value (177 C sured by means of an IR thermometer, and continuous,
for 4340 steel), the effects of the shot peening treatment in real-time, online monitoring of in-flight particle velocities
increasing the fatigue strength are lost. As a general rule, and temperature was carried out to ensure control and
in order to produce dense coatings without unmelted stability of the system spray parameters by means of the
particles, spraying parameters resulting in high flame Accuraspray online monitoring device. Table 7 shows the
temperatures are required, but if these parameters are Accuraspray data as well as spraying efficiencies for coat-
used, the component will reach high temperatures, and ings A, B, and B0 . The obtained temperatures and veloci-
therefore will require external cooling by means of CO2 or ties are employed only for comparison purposes. The
liquid N2. Coatings A and B were deposited from the particle velocity resulting from powder A was lower than
corresponding powders, following the procedure recom- that obtained from powder B. This is certainly due to the
mended by SAE AMS2447-9 and employing the same set reduction in WC particle size as observed by Bouaricha
of spraying parameters based on the powder manufacturer and Legoux (Ref 21) as well as to the slightly smaller grain
recommendations (Table 1). The coatings were optimized size. Moreover, the temperature of the particles in the
to (a) reduce porosity to offer adequate protection from flame obtained when using powder B was slightly lower
environmental corrosion; (b) reduce residual stresses to than that produced using A. According to Li et al.’s results
prevent crack development and coating delamination; (c) based on multi-scale modeling of the HVOF process for
keep the hardness between 900 and 1100 HV as, if the WCCo (Ref 22), the particle velocity and the particle
coating is not hard enough, the wear resistance would not melting degree strongly influence the coating microstruc-
meet requirements, whereas if it is too hard, the required ture. Those authors have also shown that the higher the
finishing process will be too difficult and finally; and (d) particle density, the lower is the temperature reached by
maximize the powder spray efficiency to reduce cost. the particle during spraying. This is the case with powder B
However, using small variations of all parameters did not due to smaller WC particle size, as there are more, heavier
result in significant improvements relative to the param- particles of WC in each agglomerated grain that is being
eters recommended by the powders’ manufacturers. These sprayed (Fig. 3). The parameters chosen for B0 resulted in
parameters produce a high-temperature flame requiring a significantly lower particle temperature, as expected
external cooling of the component with liquid N2 during when reducing the flame energy. Coatings A and B
spraying, to keep the component surface below 177 C. As required abundant cooling with liquid N2 during spraying,
cooling increases the processing costs, attempts to reduce whereas for B0 cooling with air was sufficient.
the flame temperature were carried with powder B which Finally, there were important differences in the spray-
exhibited the best spraying efficiency when employing the ing efficiency obtained from the two powders: powder A,
manufacturer’s parameters (Table 7). The flame energy with higher WC particle size and irregular spherical par-
was therefore reduced to keep the component surface ticles, resulted in a spraying efficiency significantly lower.
temperature to a minimum value, and at the same time, As a result of a study carried out for Cr3C2-NiCr (Ref 23),

1296—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

 Cr rich features

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(a) 50 µm 10 µm

Cr rich features

(b) 10 µm

Fig. 3 WCCoCr powders: (a) powder A and (b) powder B

Fig. 6(a)-(c) and Table 8. Four different microstructural

Table 5 WCCoCr powder composition features could be observed in the micrographs of the three
W C Fe Co Cr Ni coatings: (a) WC as light particles with angular edges and
therefore unmelted during spraying (yellow in Fig. 6); (b)
A 80.16 5.50 0.30 8.80 5.20 0.04 a gray zone corresponding to the matrix, not only rich in
B 83.19 5.20 0.20 7.7 3.70 0.01
Co but also containing Cr, W, and C (green in Fig. 6); (c)
dark large ‘‘agglomerates’’ also within the matrix, rich in
Cr but with some C (red in Fig. 6); and finally (d) black
Li et al. concluded that carbide rebounding during
pores (blue in Fig. 6). Although decarburization of WC
spraying increases with carbide particle size and therefore,
will likely result in formation of CO and/or CO2, the
the larger the carbide particle size, the higher is the
amount of C detected by EDS was considered to be sig-
amount of wasted powder. Moreover, as already men-
nificant. Porosity was very low for the three coatings, but
tioned, the flowability of spherical powders such as pow-
lower for both coatings B and B0 obtained from the
der B is higher.
smaller WC particle powder. The relative content in WC
follows the trend A < B < B0 , whereas that of the Cr-
3.3 Coating Characterization
rich agglomerates is quite the opposite.
The microstructures of the coatings A, B, and B0 are In Fig. 7, the microstructure of the electrolytic hard
shown in Fig. 5(a)-(c), respectively; moreover, image chromium coating employed as a reference, is shown for
analysis was carried out to determine the degree of comparison purposes. A pattern of fine cracks (in some
porosity as well as to obtain the coatings phase composi- cases, through-thickness) can be observed, and the
tion, and the corresponding results are presented in porosity degree is of 0.6%.

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1297

 Depth profiling of the coatings was carried by GDS
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(Fig. 8a-c), and the corresponding elemental composition

measured at half the thickness as depth is shown in Ta-
WC ble 9. Coating A exhibits a slight variation in composition
as a function of thickness (Fig. 8a) and significantly higher
W
oxygen content than the other two coatings. This higher
Co oxidation degree may be caused by the slightly higher
particle temperature observed during spraying, as in par-
η phase ticular, with the lower particle velocity resulting in the
particles spending more time in the flame and therefore
having more time to oxidize. Moreover, in coating B0 , the
total carbon content appears higher than in the other two
layers, probably as a result of less decarburization due to
the lower flame temperature. The compositions of all
coatings have significantly changed relative to the corre-
sponding powders, with less W possibly indicating
important losses during deposition by WC particle
rebounding (analysis by EDS confirmed these results).
(a) XRD of coatings A and B (Fig. 9) exhibited broadened
peaks attributed to WC, W2C, and W as well as a broad
peak at 2h = 43 indicating the formation of an amorphous
phase in agreement with other groups (Ref 24-27), but at
different relative intensities. Li et al. (Ref 24) found that
when heating a HVOF-sprayed WCCo coating to 600 C,
this peak disappeared, whereas new peaks corresponding
to Co6W6C, Co, graphite, and W appeared. In contrast,
coating B0 only had peaks corresponding to WC, W, and
g-phase (as mentioned before, it was not possible to dis-
tinguish between Co3W3C and Co6W6C), whereas the 43
peak was absent. These results indicate that the high
temperatures at which the particles are subjected when
high-energy flame conditions are employed, as for coat-
ings A and B, may be responsible for the loss of crystal-
linity of the material during spraying and also for the
decomposition of the g-phase. The phase composition was
also determined by the Rietveld method as shown in
Table 10. Coatings A and B exhibited relatively higher
amounts of W2C and a consequent a decrease in the WC
(b)
content relative to the corresponding starting powder,
Fig. 4 XRD patterns of the WCCoCr powders: (a) powder A
certainly as a result of decarburization during spraying in
and (b) powder B agreement with the results of Verdon et al. when spraying
WCCo (Ref 20). The variation in the degree of decarbu-
rization observed for the two coatings, measured by the
Table 6 Phase content of the WCCoCr powders difference between the WC present in the starting powder
determined by XRD (Rietveld method) relative to that in the coating, was small and may be
attributed to the slightly different observed particle tem-
WC, wt.% W, wt.% Co peratures during spraying: as in coating B which exhibited
Powder A 88.5 0.5 11.0
a lower flame temperature (Table 7) than coating A,
Powder B 93.1 2.7 4.2 slightly less WC has decarburized. These results are also
in agreement with those obtained by Chivavibul et al.

Table 7 Flame parameters measured with Accuraspray-g3 (measured at the spraying distance) and spraying efficiency
Powder grain size, lm Velocity, m/s Temperature, °C Spraying efficiency (a), lm/g

Coating A 53 + 11 520 1870 1.98

Coating B 45 + 11 600 1820 2.97
Coating B0 45 + 11 584 1310 4.74
(a) The spraying efficiency was calculated on the basis of microns of deposited coating per gram of powder

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Fig. 5 SEM cross-sectional images of WCCoCr coatings deposited by HVOF: (a) coating A obtained from powder A with a high-energy
flame, (b) coating B obtained from powder B with a high-energy flame, and (c) coating B0 obtained from powder B with a low-energy
flame

(Ref 26) who found a correlation between particle size observe this phase as a shell around the WC particles on
and decarburization; the larger the particle size, the higher WCCo coatings. As mentioned earlier, the Co-rich gray
the decarburization—in this case based on the total phase observed by SEM also contains significant amounts
amount of C present in the coatings. However, other au- of W and C, and is moreover, it is present in higher pro-
thors, for instance, Berget et al. (Ref 27) and Guilemany portion in coating A in agreement with a larger decarbu-
et al. (Ref 15), have found quite the opposite trend rization degree. In addition, in coating B0 , deposited with a
attributing their results to overheating of the smaller significantly lower particle temperature, the amount of
particle size and therefore increasing the chemical reac- W2C was too low to be measurable.
tivity. In addition, Guilemany concluded that higher The image analysis compositions may not be compared
decarburization is observed for lower particle sizes be- with the Rietveld results (Table 8 and 10, respectively) as in
cause of the higher surface contact area of these particles the first case some of the crystalline phases observed by
as a result of higher surface to volume ratio. As seen in XRD such as W2C cannot be observed, as already men-
Table 7, the variation in the particle temperatures ob- tioned, and conversely in XRD, non-crystalline phases such
served when spraying coatings A and B is quite low and as the matrix are absent. It is interesting, however, to note
perhaps the magnitude of the differences (<10%) in the that. in both cases. the WC content follows the same ten-
measured WC content may not be very significant. dency: A < B < B0 , and moreover, that the coatings A
The W2C phase could not be observed in the micro- and B produced with high-energy flame, have a significantly
graphs as already mentioned. Chivavibul et al. pointed out lower WC content than the original powders A and B.
(Ref 26) the particles may be very fine and dispersed in The three studied coatings exhibited relatively low
the matrix but Stewart et al. (Ref 28) and Verdon et al. compressive residual stress evaluated by Almen strip
(Ref 20) employed transmission electron microscopy to deflection (the curvature caused by coating deposition) as

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Peer Reviewed

Fig. 6 Samples employed to carry out phase image analysis of WCCoCr coatings deposited by HVOF: (a) coating A obtained from
powder A with a high energy flame, (b) coating B obtained from powder B with a high energy flame and (c) coating B0 obtained from
powder B with a low energy flame (WC: light gray, Co with some Cr, W and C: medium gray, Cr with some C: dark gray and pores: black)

Table 8 Phase content of the WCCoCr coatings

determined by image analysis
WC WCCoCr CCr Porosity

Coating A 50.4 40.7 8.4 0.5

Coating B 59.6 35.1 5.3 0.1
Coating B0 74.3 22.3 3.3 0.1

shown on Table 11 (Almen values within the +0.076 to

0.305 mm range are considered acceptable for this
application (Ref 29): the higher the deflection, the higher
is the compressive stress). Moreover, there is a correlation
between the particle temperature and the stress for the
three coatings with coating A, exhibiting both the highest
temperature during spraying and the highest compressive
stress, in agreement with Legoux and Bouaricha (Ref 29)
as well as Ibrahim and Berndt (Ref 30), who have indi- Fig. 7 SEM cross-sectional images including a sample
employed for the phase image analysis of electrolytic hard
cated that the residual stress that develops in a thermal- chromium
spray-coated surface is mostly related to the thermal
conditions to which the coating-substrate system has been
subjected, as a result of quenching stresses that arise than the Cr reference. On the other hand, the hardness of
during deposition and cooling during post-deposition. coating B0 is significantly lower than that of the other two
Moreover, it has been shown that the fatigue strength of coatings due to the lower flame energy parameters
the coated components can be increased by introducing employed during its deposition. These results are in
compressive stresses into the surface (Ref 31); however, agreement with Zhao et al. (Ref 32) who observed the
these stresses must not be too high or else the coating will same trend. The results are also in agreement with the
spall during cooling. high content of W2C present in coatings A and B, as W2C
The Vickers microhardness of coatings A, B, and B0 as is significantly harder (HV: 3000) than WC (HV: 1300-
well as that of the electrolytic hard Cr coating are shown 2300) (Ref 33), whereas as already mentioned, in the
on Table 12. The three WCCoCr coatings were harder softer coating B0 , there is no W2C according to the XRD

1300—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

 Peer Reviewed
Fig. 8 GDS depth profiling of the three WCCoCr coatings: (a) coating A, (b) coating B, and (c) coating B0

Table 9 Elemental analysis of the WCCoCr coatings 3.4 Adhesion

determined by GDS (wt.%) Coated specimens were bent to 90 around an 8-mm-Ø
W Co Cr C O mandrel, and no evidence of coating delamination could
be observed in any of the samples. In Fig. 10, a bent
Coating A 64.22 18.05 7.18 4.63 4.07 specimen per each of the different WCCoCr coatings is
Coating B 69.20 16.26 6.54 6.56 0.00
Coating B0 67.50 13.88 6.28 8.87 2.17
shown including hard Cr for comparison purposes.
Moreover, for the three WCCoCr coatings, the adhesion
strength was higher than 89 MPa, as failure always
analysis. Bouaricha and Legoux (Ref 21) observed an occurred within the adhesive. For the hard Cr coating, fail-
opposite trend, i.e., the higher the decarburization, the ure occurred at the coating substrate interface at 100 MPa.
lower the hardness, but their decarburized coating showed
very high amounts of W (38-47 wt.%) which is certainly
3.5 Salt Fog Corrosion
significantly softer (HV: 349) (Ref 34) than the two car- Uncoated specimens as well as two different deposition
bides. A and B exhibit the same hardness values despite batches of electrolytic hard Cr-coated specimens (both
the difference in WC particle size and also in W2C con- with a coating thickness of 100 lm) were included to
tent. However, the magnitude of this last difference may illustrate the lack of repeatability typical of this coating, as
not be significant enough to have an effect in the coatings small variation on processing parameters have strong
hardness, as already mentioned. effects on the coatings quality. The thickness of each of

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1301

Peer Reviewed

WC
W2C

η phase

(a) (b)

(c)
Fig. 9 XRD patterns of the three WCCoCr coatings: (a) coating A, (b) coating B, and (c) coating B0

Table 10 Phase content of the WCCoCr coatings Table 11 Almen strip deflection of the WCCoCr
determined by the XRD (Rietveld method) coatings
WC, wt.% W2C, wt.% W, wt.% Deflection, mm

Coating A 68.4 29.2 2.4 Coating A 0.29

Coating B 76.8 20 3.2 Coating B 0.15
Coating B0 97.0 … 3.0 Coating B0 0.11

the three WCCoCr coating was 150 lm, and exposure seen that the hard Cr coating obtained from batch 1
was carried out for a total of 1000 h. The progression of exhibited very poor corrosion resistance with a ranking of
the ratings (after removal of the corrosion products) is 4 after only 24 h caused by excessive, generalized blis-
represented on Fig. 11, whereas images of representative tering, leading to corrosion pits, whereas batch 2 exhibited
specimens after exposure and before removal of the cor- better behavior with only localized blistering, mostly near
rosion products are shown in Fig. 12. the specimen edges and a ranking of 4 after 1000 h.
The uncoated specimens were totally covered with Electrolytic hard Cr coatings exhibit a microcracked
corrosion products after only 24 h as expected. Regarding morphology which develops to relieve high residual
the hard Cr-coated specimens, different results were stresses originating from the deposition process (Ref 35).
obtained for each batch. From Fig. 11 and 12, it can be Published data from other research groups also show

1302—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

diverse results when salt fog testing the hard Cr coating. In B0 , sprayed with a low-energy flame to reduce heating of

Peer Reviewed
some cases, the differences in behavior are associated to the component, showed a much lower resistance to salt fog
different coating thicknesses as several authors have corrosion exhibiting large blisters and a ranking of 2 after
indicated that the higher the thickness the better the only 144 h of exposure. This observation suggests that
corrosion resistance. It is not the case in the present corrosive agents could open a path to the substrate and
investigation, as both batches exhibited the same coating corrode it. Most authors agree that corrosion occurs via
thickness. Other groups have associated the differences in path ways such as through-thickness cracks, intercon-
corrosion resistance to uncontrolled processing parame- nected porosity, interlamellar or unmelted particles
ters during production resulting in different degrees of boundaries, or micro-cracking (Ref 38-41). As already
microcracking (Ref 5, 7, 8, 22, 25, 36). mentioned, this coating has very low porosity and at a
On the other hand, WCCoCr coatings A and B similar level than that of coating B (0.1%) as seen in Fig. 6
exhibited excellent behavior and certainly, significantly and Table 8, but the resolution of the SEM may not be
better than that of the best hard Cr coating (resulting from high enough to show very fine pores and cracks that allow
batch 2). Both coatings exhibited a ranking of 7-8 after the passage of H2O/NaCl molecules all the way to the
1000 h of exposure, and there was a significant difference substrate (Ref 36). Figure 13 shows the cross section of
between them, as on coating A there was some degree of corroded B0 after 144 h of salt fog spray exposure. It is
corrosion near the corresponding specimen edges. How- observed that there is no evidence of either micro-crack-
ever, ASTM 117 indicates that corrosion near the edges ing or porosityor unmelted particles or clearly defined
must be disregarded. Dudzinski et al.Õs results (Ref 8) on
the same type of coatings on Aermet 100 and 300 M
indicated that a thickness of 76 lm exhibited pitting
already after 500 h, whereas those with 254 lm did not Hard Cr batch1
12
corrode, and the coated samples were only discolored hard Cr batch2
WCCoCr (A)
after 1000 h. Bodger et al. employed 200-lm-thick WCCOCr (B)
WCCoCr and did not observe corrosion products after 10
WCCoCr (B´)
30 days of exposure to the salt spray test (Ref 37). From Base Material 4340
the present results, it can be concluded that such high 8
Rating ( 0-10 )

thicknesses are not required for the coatings to protect

4340 from salt fog corrosion. On the other hand, coating 6

Table 12 Vickers microhardness of the coating 2

Microhardness (HV0.3) 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100
Hard chrome 850 Time (h)
Coating A 1200
Coating B 1200
Coating B0 1000 Fig. 11 Rating of the tested specimens when exposed to a salt
fog corrosion atmosphere

Fig. 10 Bend test results: (a) hard Cr, (b) WCCoCr (A), (c) WCCoCr (B), and (d) WCCoCr (B0 )

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1303

Peer Reviewed

Fig. 12 Salt fog corrosion test results: (a) uncoated 4340 steel, (b) hard Cr (batch 1), (c) hard Cr (batch 2), (d) WCCoCr (A), (e)
WCCoCr (B), and (f) WCCoCr (B0 )

interlamellar boundaries. Nevertheless, the substrate cor- to corrosion than WCCoCr. Moreover, Cr3C2NiCr is also
rosion products have permeated the coating (and are more resistant to salt spray corrosion than WCNi (Ref 42).
actually present within it), even reaching the coating sur- As mentioned before, corrosion may also proceed through
face. The corrosive attack may be associated to the lower interconnected porosity, too fine to be observed by SEM.
matrix/particles volume ratio observed in coating B0 , and
therefore, to the lower Cr content, as Cr is mostly present
in the matrix, or as carbide, but only that present in the 3.6 Liquid Immersion Testing
matrix is available to contribute to increase the corrosion Aeronautic components are exposed to a wide variety
resistance. Moreover, corrosion may proceed through the of fluids currently employed for different purposes, such
relatively higher level of WC particle boundaries as there as fuels, antifreezes, hydraulic fluids, lubricants, degrea-
are significantly more such particles per coating volume in sers, etc. Therefore coatings employed on said compo-
this layer, than in the other two coatings. It has actually nents must be resistant to these fluids. After immersion in
been shown that Cr-free coatings, such as WCCo (Ref 5) the liquids indicated in Table 3 for a total of 168 h, all of
and WCNi (Ref 42) coatings, are significantly less resistant the tested specimens had a rating of 0. Indeed, coatings

1304—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

 Peer Reviewed
Fig. 13 Cross section of corroded WCCoCr (B0 ) including Fe EDS mapping of typical areas exhibiting substrate corrosion products: (a)
under, (b) within, and (c) over the coating

Fig. 14 Representative immersion test results after 168 h in a 33 vol.% propylene glycol solution in water (antifreeze): (a) WCCoCr
(A), (b) hard Cr (batch 2), and (c) WCCoCr (B0 )

A and B did not show evidence of discoloration or cor- passed the test with a 0 rating, as there was no evidence of
rosion as shown in Fig. 14(a) where a representative corrosion.
coating is shown after immersion in a 33 vol.% propylene
glycol solution in water (antifreeze). On the other hand,
the hard Cr specimens from batch 2, as well as coating B0 3.7 Wear Test
did show some discoloration only when in contact with the The friction coefficients as a function of sliding distance
33 vol.% of propylene glycol in water (Fig. 14b and c, are presented in Fig. 15, whereas the average values as
respectively), although it was considered that they both well as the wear rate of the four studied coatings are

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1305

 shown in Table 13. All of the WCCoCr coatings exhibit an always lower than that observed for the hard Cr coating.
Peer Reviewed

average friction coefficient of approximately 0.5 with The coating wear coefficient was determined by measuring
slight variations as a function of distance but in all cases, the wear scar with a high precision profilometer. No wear
could be detected for the WCCoCr coatings, whereas the
wear coefficient for the hard Cr was 2.27 9 104 mm3/Nm.
Load: 10; Radius: 4 mm; Sliding speed: 10 cm/s; This is clearly illustrated in Fig. 16, where the cross sec-
Sliding distance: 1 km; Counter part: Alumina ball; tions of representative investigated samples are shown. No
1 material loss could be observed in any of the WCCoCr
coatings, whereas a significant scar is present in the hard
0,8 Cr-coated specimen. Given the higher hardness of the
Friction coefficient

WCCoCr coatings, these results were not unexpected.

0,6 Nascimento et al. (Ref 36) and Cioffi and coworkers (Ref
11) as well as Koon et al. (Ref 25) also observed better
0,4 abrasive wear resistance of WCCo and WCCoCr when
compared to hard Cr coatings.
0,2
3.8 Fatigue Test
0
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
The S-N curves for the axial fatigue tests for 4340- as
well as hard Cr- and WCCoCr-coated specimens are rep-
Distance (km)
resented in Fig. 17. Only coating B was fatigue tested as
EHC WCCoCr B WCCoCr B' WCCoCr A coating B0 did not pass the salt fog corrosion test.
The hard chromium electroplating significantly
Fig. 15 Friction coefficient of the tested coatings decreases the fatigue resistance. It is well known that the

Table 13 Pin-on-disk test results

Sample Friction coefficient Wear rate, mm3/Nm

Name Ra, lm l Average Coating Ball

EHC 0.0771 0.6914 227E6 2.278E4

A 0.1924 0.4693 ND ND
B 0.0443 0.5164 ND 8.12E10
B0 0.1679 0.3915 ND ND

Fig. 16 Cross sections of wear tracks of (a) hard Cr, (b) WCCoCr (A), (c) WCCoCr (B), and (d) WCCoCr (B0 )

1306—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

 AXIAL FATIGUE R=-1 20 Hz R.T.

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800

700
STRESS (MPa)

600

500

400
10.000 100.000 1.000.000 10.000.000

CYCLES (N)
4340 Hard Cr coated 4340 WCCOCr HVOF coated 4340 Base Material

Fig. 17 Fatigue tests

hard Cr-plating process induces a tensile residual stress in as flame energies were employed and studied, and the
the substrate, and the coating contains a high density of resulting coatings exhibited very low porosity as measured
microcracks, which allows the crack initiation process to by image analysis and higher hardness than electrolytic
start at the periphery of the specimens; thus, the rate of hard Cr coating. The WC particle size differences did not
the fatigue process increases, and the fatigue strength appear to significantly affect the coatings microstructure
decreases (Ref 30, 42). The Cr-plated components are and microhardness, but the spraying efficiency obtained
usually shot peened to improve the fatigue strength, but when using the smaller particle size powder was signifi-
never to the level of the uncoated shot peened material. In cantly higher. This represents important savings as powder
the present studies, none of the tested specimens was shot price constitute an important share of the total coating
peened before coating and testing. deposition cost and therefore significantly affects the
Compared with hard Cr, the results obtained for the overall economy of the process. Decreasing the flame
specimens coated with WCCoCr (B) applied by HVOF energy to reduce component overheating resulted in sub-
show a lower decrease in fatigue strength with respect to stantial differences in microstructure and phase composi-
uncoated AISI4340. The decrease in fatigue strength rel- tion, and also caused a reduction in microhardness.
ative to the uncoated substrate may be due to coating There were no significant differences in behavior in
irregularities and high surface roughness (Ra = 4.30 lm) as adhesion or in any of the wear and corrosion tests for the
these features are possible causes for cracks or nucleation/ two coatings deposited with a high-energy flame. In these
initiation sites. On the other hand, the observed better tests, the two coatings exhibited equal or better behavior
behavior when compared with the hard Cr-plated results than the hard Cr-electroplated reference. In particular, the
may be explained on the basis of compressive residual salt fog corrosion and wear resistances of the WCCoCr
stresses induced by the HVOF process on the substrate, exceeded by far those of the hard Cr reference.
which is beneficial for the fatigue resistance. It is impor- Decreasing the flame energy to reduce component
tant to emphasize the better fatigue strength of the overheating resulted in similar wear and liquid immersion
WCCoCr compared with hard Cr even in spite of the corrosion behavior than the other studied coatings, but a
higher surface roughness of the WCCoCr coatings (Ref significant loss of atmospheric corrosion resistance was
25). Others have shown that by shot peening before observed. This difference is likely due to substantial
coating and testing, the fatigue strength of WCCoCr steels variations in microstructure and phase composition, but in
is significantly increased to the level of the uncoated any case, the low-energy flame coating is significantly
material (Ref 11). better than the hard Cr reference coating.
The effect of the nano-structured WCCoCr coating
applied by HVOF was to decrease the axial fatigue
4. Conclusions strength of AISI 4340 steel. However, this decrease was
lower than that observed for hard Cr-electroplated
WCCoCr coatings were deposited by HVOF thermal specimens.
spray to be used as candidates to replace electrolytic hard HVOF WCCoCr coatings can be used as alternative to
Cr coatings currently employed on landing gear actuators. hard Cr-electroplated coating in landing gear actuators.
Powders with different WC particle size and shape as well The nano-structured coatings can be produced with a

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1307

 higher spraying efficiency representing cost savings Gear, Naval Research Laboratory, Report No. NRL/MR/6170-
Peer Reviewed

Despite exhibiting lower corrosion resistance than the 04-8762, 2004, http://www.estcp.org/viewfile.cfm?doc=PP-9608-
FR-01.pdf
high-energy flame coatings, the low-energy flame 11. H. Voorwald, R. Souza, W. Pigatin, and M. Cioffi, Evaluation of
WCCoCr still exceeds the performance of the hard Cr WC-17Co and WC-10Co-4Cr Thermal Spray Coatings by HVOF
reference and can therefore offer further reduction of on the Fatigue and Corrosion Strength of AISI, 4340 Steel, Surf.
processing costs and complexity as component cooling will Coat. Technol., 2005, 190, p 155-164
not be required. 12. K. Jia and T.E. Fisher, Abrasion Resistance of Nanostructured
and Conventional Cemented Carbides, Wear, 1996, 200, p 206-
214
13. K. Jia and T.E. Fisher, Sliding Wear of Conventional and
Acknowledgments Nanostructured Cemented Carbides, Wear, 1997, 203-204, p 310-
318
This study has been partly financed by the Spanish 14. T.Y. Cho, J.H. Yoon, K.S. Kim, K.O. Song, Y.K. Joo, W. Fang,
S.H. Zhang, S.J. Youn, H.G. Chun, and S.Y. Hwang, A Study on
Ministry of Education and Science under project CIT-
HVOF Coatings of Micron and Nano WC-Co Powders, Surf.
370200-2005-18 ‘‘Environmentally Compliant Coatings as Coat. Technol., 2008, 202, p 5556-5559
Alternatives for Hard-Cr, Cd and Ni’’ (RAMPE). The 15. J.M. Guilemany, S. Dosta, and J.R. Miguel, The Enhancement on
authors are grateful to the partners of RAMPE: AERN- the Properties of WC-Co HVOF Coatings Through the Use of
NOVA, CESA, GUTMAR, ITP, SENER, and TEKNI- Nanostructured and Microstructured Feedstock Powders, Surf.
Coat. Technol., 2006, 201, p 1180-1190
KER for their support, especially to CESA for providing 16. J.P. Sauer and P. Sahoo, HVOF Process Control Using Almen
the substrate material employed in the project. The con- and Temperature Measurement, www.imrlouisville.com/cms/
tribution of SULZER-WOKA is also acknowledged as repository/
thermal spray powder supplier. The authors express their 17. L.M. Berger, W. Hermel, P. Vuoristo, T. Mäntylä, W. Lengauer,
and P. Ettmayer, Structure Properties and Potentials of WC-Co,
thanks to the personnel at the Metallic Materials Area of
Cr3C2-NiCr and TiC-Ni-Based Hardmetal like Coatings, Thermal
INTA, for their valuable contribution, in particular to Spray: Practical Solutions for Engineering Problems, ASM
Dr. A. Sánchez Pascual, the former head of that Area, and Thermal Spray Society, Cincinnati, OH, 1996, p 89-96
F. Longo its present head, for their support. 18. R.A. Young, The Rietveld Method, Oxford Science Publications,
Oxford, 1993
19. L.M. Berger, P. Ettmayer, P. Vuoristo, T. Mäntyla, and W.
Kunert, Microstructure and Properties of WC-10%Co-4% Cr
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1308—Volume 20(6) December 2011 Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

30. A. Ibrahim and C.C. Berndt, Fatigue and Deformation of HVOF by HP/HVOF and Hard Chromium Electroplating on AISI, 4340

Peer Reviewed
Sprayed WC-Co Coatings and Hard Chrome Plating, Mater. Sci. High Strength Steel, Surf. Coat. Technol., 2001, 138, p 113-124
Eng. A, 2007, 456, p 114-119 37. B.E. Bodger, R.T.R. Megram, and D.A. Sommerville, The
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Elevated Temperature High Cycle Fatigue Behaviour of Mar- Replacements for Electrodeposited Chrome Plating on Aircraft
tensitic Stainless Steel, Proceedings of the 6th National Thermal Landing Gear, Plat. Surf. Finish., 1997, p 28-31
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Technology (Houston), ASM International, TX, 1995, p 463-468 Selected Thermal Spray Coatings, Corrosion 93, 1993, Paper No. 24
32. L. Zhao, M. Maurer, F. Fischer, R. Dicks, and E. Lugscheider, 39. A.A. Ashary and R.C. Tucker, Electrochemical and Long-Term
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ties and the Properties of HVOF Coating of WC-CoCr, Wear, Plasma Sprayed with Cr2O3, Surf. Coat. Technol., 1989, 43-44,
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Voorwald, Effects of Tungsten Carbide Thermal Spray Coating Coat. Technol., 2008, 203, p 191-198

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Volume 20(6) December 2011—1309