Tribochemical behavior of alumina coatings deposited by high-velocity oxy fuel spraying

Alumina is one of the most versatile coatings applied on tools whose working life is reduced due to high wear rate, high temperature, and highly corrosive environments. High-velocity oxy fuel (HVOF) methods are industrially used to deposit this type of coatings. In this study, the effect of the hydrochloric acid concentration on the wear behavior of an HVOF alumina coating was investigated via room-temperature and 60 °C pin-on-disk wear experiments. The results showed that the corrosive environments up to 5% acid did not meaningfully affect the wear damage rate, as compared to the dry condition, due to a contest between friction coefficient and corrosion damage. Nevertheless, the wear rate significantly increased at higher acid concentrations and higher temperatures, since the corrosion effect prevailed over the friction coefficient effect. Also, the predominant wear mechanism was recognized to be adhesive.