Using the developed cavitation test to evaluate erosion resistance of cermet thermal sprayed coatings

Many machinery parts working in contact with a fast-flowing fluid flow (e.g. turbine blades of hydroelectric power plants, valves, pump impeller blades, ship propellers, cooling systems for various units, etc.) are subjected to such type of wear as cavitation erosion. An important objective is to eliminate or reduce cavitation erosion so as to achieve a considerable economic effect. This research uses a patented technique developed to evaluate the cavitation erosion resistance of cermet thermal spray coatings (WC–10Co4Cr and WC–20CrC–7Ni). These coatings were prepared using high velocity air fuel thermal spraying (HVAF). The aim of this study is to test a new technique for evaluating coating cavitation resistance, which differs from the standard one by specimen positioning relative to the testing liquid. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the initial structure of the coatings prepared and study their behavior after cavitation exposure. The material volume loss criterion during the cavitation test was used to evaluate the coating resistance. The results of cavitation tests showed that the WC–20CrC–7Ni coating has a somewhat higher cavitation resistance than that of WC–10Co4Cr despite its slightly lower average hardness (850±90 HV0.5 versus 950±60 HV0.5). The study of coating surfaces and cross-sections showed that they feature by different erosion mechanisms. It can be concluded that the presence of defects (pores) in the coating structure is the main reason for reducing their cavitation erosion resistance. Therefore, the developed technique proved effective in obtaining experimental data to analyze cermet thermal spray coatings for cavitation wear.