TiC/Fe cermet coating by plasma cladding using asphalt as carbonaceous precursor

A new Ti-Fe-C compound powder for plasma cladding was prepared by heating a mixture powder of ferrotitanium and asphalt pyrolyzed as carbonaceous precursor. The carbon by the pyrolysis of the asphalt acts as a reactive constituent as well as a binder in the compound powder. TiC/Fe cermet coatings were prepared by plasma cladding with the compound powder. Results show that the Ti-Fe-C compound powder has a very tight structure, which can avoid the problem that reactive constituent particles are separated during cladding. The TiC/Fe cermet coating presents a typical morphology of plasma cladding coatings with two different laminated layers: one is the composite layers in which the round fine TiC particles (<500nm) are dispersed within a Fe matrix, the other is the paragentic layers of TiC and Ti2O3. The coating shows high hardness and excellent wear resistance. The surface hardness of the coating is 68±5(HR30N). In the same fretting conditions, the wear area of Ni60 coating is about 11 times as much as the TiC/Fe cermet coating.