Development of Al-Ni-TiC Composite Coating on Commercially Pure Al Using Tungsten Inert Gas Welding Route and its Wear Behavior

The present work aims to develop metal matrix composite coating consisting of 70 wt.% of aluminum, 20 wt.% of nickel and 10 wt.% of titanium carbide on commercially pure Al using tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding technique. The effects of parametric variation and microstructure of composite coating on sliding wear behavior have been studied at the normal load of 5 N using ball-on-disc arrangement. Al-Ni-TiC composite coating has shown excellent adherence. Coating has been characterized using scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction. The microhardness of the coating has increased to 134 HV0.05. which is ~5 times that of the substrate (24 HV0.05). The Al-Ni-TiC composite coating has also exhibited two times lower coefficient of friction and eight times higher wear resistance as compared to the substrate. The coefficient of friction has been found to increase with current, whereas specific wear rate has been observed to decrease with current used during TIG process.