Abstract
This study assesses the erosive wear performance of hard-phase-reinforced coatings developed for use on hammer drills employed in mining operations. Several laser-clad coatings consisting of a nickel matrix with various tungsten carbides were evaluated along with two Fe-based alloys, FeCrBSi and FeCrNiBSi, and a WC-CoCr reference layer deposited by HVOF spraying. Erosion tests were conducted in 15° steps up to an angle of 90° and coating performance was determined based on volume loss obtained by 3D profilometry. At low angles, the more brittle materials lost significantly less volume, but at 90°, wear-resistant steel performs almost as well as a hard-phase loaded coating. Laser-clad layers with spherical fused tungsten carbides (FTC) performed better overall than coatings with regular (angular) FTC.
