Wear resistance of multilayered sol–gel silica layers on aluminium matrix composites

Sol–gel silica coatings have been developed, using a dip-coating process to provide corrosion and wear resistance to aluminium composites reinforced with SiC particles. Pin-on-disk tests indicate that these ceramic coatings reduce the adhesive wear between the steel pin and composite. The coatings extracted at lower deposition speeds are thinner than those extracted at faster speeds, but they show better wear resistance which can be explained by their greater hardness caused by a better consolidated structure.