TiC-reinforced Fe-base metal ceramic composite coatings fabricated by reactive plasma spraying

A kind of Fe-Ti-C composite powder for reactive spraying was prepared with ferrotitanium and sucrose as raw materials. TiC/Fe composite coatings were synthesized and deposited by reactive plasma spraying (RPS). XRD, SEM and EDS were employed to analyze the composition and microstructure of the composite powder and coatings. The wear resistance properties of the coatings were also tested. The results show that the particles of Fe-Ti-C composite powder for RPS are uniform without any impurity and the bonding strength among the raw material particles is strong. TiC/Fe composite coatings by RPS are composed of layers in which round TiC particles are dispersed within the Fe-alloy matrix. The size of round TiC particles is mostly less than 0.5 μm. The wearing capacity of TiC/Fe composite coatings with 53 % TiC is 25 times that of the substrate (45 steel) in a SRV tester.