The Tribological Performance of Hardfaced/ Thermal Sprayed Coatings for Increasing the Wear Resistance of Ventilation Mill Working Parts

During the coal pulverizing, the working parts of the ventilation mill are being worn by the sand particles. For this reason, the working parts are usually protected with materials resistant to wear (hardfaced/thermal sprayed coatings). The aim of this study was to evaluate the tribological performance of four different types of coatings as candidates for wear protection of the mill’s working parts. The coatings were produced by using the filler materials with the following nominal chemical composition: NiFeBSi-WC, NiCrBSiC, FeCrCTiSi, and FeCrNiCSiBMn, and by using the plasma arc welding and flame and electric arc spraying processes. The results showed that Ni-based coatings exhibited higher wear resistance than Fe-based coatings. The highest wear resistance showed coating produced by using the NiFeBSi-WC filler material and plasma transferred arc welding deposition process. The hardness was not the only characteristic that affected the wear resistance. In this context, the wear rate of NiFeBSi-WC coating was not in correlation with its hardness, in contrast to other coatings. The different wear performance of NiFeBSi-WC coating was attributed to the different type and morphological features of the reinforcing particles (WC).