Slurry erosion behavior of HVOF-sprayed WC-10Co-4Cr coated SS 316 steel with and without PTFE modification

Abstract

Several hydro-machinery components such as impellers of the submersible pump and turbine blades generally suffer from slurry erosion during their operation. High-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF)-sprayed coatings are promising materials to prevent such components from slurry erosion. Moreover, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a well-accepted hydrophobic material, which has several attractive properties such as chemical inertness and considerable thermal stability. Therefore, PTFE coating has been explored as a topcoat for a HVOF-sprayed WC-10Co4Cr coating, with an aim to enhance the performance of the latter and analyzed with different slurry erosion conditions. A slurry erosion test rig was used for experimentation, and the effect of four different erosion parameters, namely average particle size, slurry concentration, impact angle, and velocity of jet, was investigated. A comparative study between PTFE-modified HVOF-sprayed coating and the standalone HVOF-sprayed coating was also done with respect to slurry erosion behavior and hydrophobicity. The overall results indicate that the slurry erosion of the HVOFsprayed coated SS 316 steel got enhanced after modification by PTFE topcoat. Furthermore, the topcoat of PTFE on HVOF-sprayed coating resulted in a remarkable improvement in hydrophobicity, showing a superhydrophobic behavior, which might have also provided a better slurry erosion resistance to the HVOF-sprayed steel.