Abrasive wear characteristics of plasma sprayed nanostructured alumina/titania coatings

In this paper, the plasma spray technique was used to deposit coatings with reconstituted nanostructured Al2O3/TiO2 powders. The abrasive wear resistance of the ceramic coatings was evaluated using diamond abrasives. The result showed that the abrasive wear resistance of the coatings produced using the nanostructured Al2O3/TiO2 powders is greatly improved compared with the coating produced using the conventional Al2O3/TiO2 powder (Metco 130). The highest abrasion resistance of the coating sprayed with nanostructured Al2O3/TiO2 powder is about four times that of the coating sprayed with the conventional Al2O3/TiO2 powder. Both as fabricated and after wear Al2O3/TiO2 coatings were investigated by X-ray diffraction, SEM and indentation tests. The abrasive wear mechanism is also discussed.