Abstract
Thermally sprayed hard coatings, including tungsten carbide and chromium carbide cermets and other hard metallic materials, were studied in two types of wear tests. Surfaces of the coatings were worn by coarse and hard quartz sand in a rubber-wheel dry abrasion wear test, and by fine and soft kaolin abrasive in a wet slurry abrasion wear test. The aim of the work was to study how the surfaces retain their high polished finish and gloss, and the type of wearing of different coatings and materials. The results showed that coatings with hard tungsten carbides were worn preferentially by removal of the the binder material. Cermet coatings with softer chromium carbides, and with another types of uniform microstructures showed more uniform wear and better retained their glossy finish.