The erosion and abrasion characteristics of alumina coatings plasma sprayed under different spraying conditions

A series of plasma sprayed alumina coatings was evaluated regarding their erosion and abrasion characteristics. The coatings were deposited under different spraying conditions, using a commercial axial injection plasma spray system, and with powders of different grit sizes and crystallinity. A sintered bulk alumina and a conventionally sprayed coating, produced by a radial injection air plasma spray technique, were tested as reference materials. To evaluate the importance of energy input the coatings were produced using two different torch nozzle sizes and gas mixtures with a varied amount of hydrogen. The erosion and abrasion results indicate that hydrogen concentration, nozzle size and precursor powder type and size influence the tribological characteristics of the coatings. The wear resistance of the coatings seems to benefit from an increase in hydrogen concentration or torch nozzle size. The effect of precursor powder size on the wear resistance was more complex but indicates that sapphire powders of medium precursor sizes are advantageous to ordinary plasma spraying powders of alumina. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.