A Comparative Study on Wear Resistance of Cold-Sprayed Aluminum/Quasicrystal Composite Coatings

Cold spray (CS) technology has proven a great potential in the production of composite coatings, enabling the production of materials with superior qualities such as enhanced tribological behavior. This study aims to investigate the tribological properties of CS Al-based composite coatings reinforced by quasicrystalline (QC) particles. Two different Al alloys were used as the matrix, AA 6061 and AA 2024, and mixed with Al-based QC particles (Al-Cr-Fe-Cu) at different Al/QC ratios. A room-temperature ball-on-disc test was then used to evaluate the wear resistance of the composite CS coatings in air and compared to those of the non-reinforced Al alloy CS coatings as well as a cast counterpart (AA 6061-T6). We have demonstrated that CS could be employed to produce thick and dense Al-QC composites that can retain up to about 50 wt.% QC reinforcement in the structure. The incorporation of the QC particles increased the wear resistance by a factor of 7.