Fretting Behavior of WC-Co-Cr Coatings Against QT Steel in Bolted Joint

Fretting damage on contacting surfaces introduces major challenges in mechanical assemblies. Thermal sprayed hardmetal coatings are extensively used for surface modification in tribological applications under demanding conditions and may also be subjected to fretting-inducing loading. In the present work, the fretting behavior of High Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) and High Velocity Air–Fuel (HVAF) sprayed WC-10Co-4Cr coatings against quenched and tempered (QT) steel was studied by using a single bolt joint-type fretting experiment. This experimental approach was selected to obtain realistic data on the fretting fatigue performance of the contact pairs (both coating-to-steel and coating-to-coating). Experimental results were completed with continuum-scale linear elastic finite element method (FEM) calculations.