Abstract:A typical 321 stainless steel/aluminum composite coating (321/Al coating) was prepared by high velocity arc spraying technique (HVAS) with 321 stainless steel wire as the anode and aluminum wire as the cathode. The traditional 321 stainless steel coating was also prepared for comparison. Tribological properties of the coatings were evaluated with the ring-block wear tester under different conditions. The structure and worn surface of the coatings were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), X-ray diffractometry(XRD) and energy dispersion spectroscopy(EDS). The results show that, except for aluminum phase addition in the 321/Al coating, no other phases are created compared with the 321 coating. However, due to the addition of aluminum, the 321/Al coating forms a type of “ductile/hard phases inter-deposited” structure and performs quite different tribological behavior. Under the dry sliding condition, the anti-wear property of 321/Al coating is about 42% lower than that of 321 coating. But under the oil lubricated conditions with or without 32 h oil-dipping pretreatment, the anti-wear property of 321/Al coating is about 9% and 5% higher than that of 321 coating, respectively. The anti-wear mechanism of the composite coating is mainly relevant to the decrease of oxide impurities and the strengthening action resulted from the “ductile/hard phases inter-deposited” coating structure.

Key words: high velocity arc spray(HVAS); composite coating; austenitic stainless steel; sliding wear