Preparation of iron base amorphous and nanocrystalline alloy coatings by plasma spraying

The coating was prepared on 316L stainless steel by air plasma spraying with a kind of iron base amorphous alloy powder which contains C, Si, B, Cr, W, Mo, Ni, Fe etc. as the plasma spraying powder. The crystal configuration of the coating was inspected with an X-ray diffractometer, the microstructure observed by SEM and TEM, the hardness and elastic modulus measured with a micro-sclerometer and a triboindenter; and the size ofcry- stallites in the coating calculated by Scherrer's equation. It is proved that the Fe-base alloy coating fabricated by air plasma spraying has homogenous microstructure and contains metal glass and nanocrystal at the same time. The experimental results show that the coating is uniform, dense and well combined with 316L stainless steel, with high hardness and elastic modulus.