Characterisation of detonation sprayed Mo–Co–Cr–B alloy coatings

Abstract

A novel thermal spray material of Mo–Co–Cr–B with high durability in molten alloys has been developed to utilise for die casting parts and for galvanising bath parts. In the present paper, detonation gun (D gun) spray technique was used to deposit a Mo–Co–Cr–B alloy coating onto 316L stainless steel substrate, and the microstructures and mechanical properties of the coating system were studied using XRD, SEM, tensile test and Vickers microhardness. The results show that the microstructures of the coating consisted of ternary transition metal borides matrix CoMo₂B₂, CoMoB, as well as a little amount of binary borides, MoB and CrB. The ternary borides matrix contained both amorphous phase and nanocrystalline grains with a size of 60±35 nm. The bond strength of the coating decreases with increasing thickness of the as sprayed coatings. The anisotropy in the mechanical properties between the cross-section and plan section of the coatings is examined. Comparing the microhardness and bond strength of detonation sprayed Mo–Co–Cr–B coating with those of HVOF sprayed Mo–Co–Cr–B coating, it can be concluded that the detonation spray process has a better performance than HVOF spray process.