Corrosion and wear properties of FeCrMnCoSi HVOF coatings

FeCrMnCoSi coating (so-called CaviTec alloy) is recognized as an efficient protective measure to extend the service-life of steel components subjected to severe cavitation erosion. Besides this requirement, many applications also demand coatings with proper corrosion and wear resistances. The aim of this study is to evaluate the pitting corrosion and the sliding wear resistances of CaviTec coatings produced by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) and deposited onto a 304 stainless steel (SS). The corrosion performances in simulated seawater indicated that these coatings exhibit satisfactory corrosion resistance with regions around the inter-splats representing the preferential weak links sites for pitting corrosion initiation. CaviTec coating wear is characterized by mild delamination followed by severe abrasive wear once the hard-martensitic debris are added in the tribosystem due to the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) effect. Corrosion and wear results point out that the CaviTec coatings, originally developed to possess high cavitation erosion resistance, also present satisfactory corrosion resistance in seawater-like medium and interesting dry sliding wear performance, which can extend their application domain.