Influence on the wear resistance of the particle size used in coatings of Alumina

In the literature, it is common to find that the size of the particles used in coatings through thermal spraying processes influences the hardness and wear resistance thereof; this project aimed to quantify the importance of this parameter in the adhesive and abrasive wear resistance when aluminium oxide is deposited on a substrate of AISI 1020 steel, through a thermal spraying by flame process. The methodology consisted of: a) morphological characterization of the powder used in the coatings by scanning electron microscopy, b) deposition of coatings, c) testing of adhesive and abrasive wear (ASTM G99-05 Standard test method for wear testing with a pin-on-disk apparatus and ASTM G65-04 Standard test method for measuring abrasion using dry sand/rubber wheel apparatus), and d) statistical analysis to determine the influence of particle size on wear resistance. The average size of the powder used for coatings was 92, 1690, 8990 and 76790nm. The obtained results allow to identify an inversely proportional behaviour between particle size and wear resistance, in both types of wear (adhesive and abrasive) is shown a logarithmic trend indicating an increase in loss mass during the test as the particle size is also increased and therefore a decrease in wear resistance of the coating.