Effect of heat treatment on corrosion behavior of duplex coatings

In the present paper, duplex WC-Co/NiCrAlY coating is coated onto Ti6Al4V substrate and vacuum heat treatment is employed to investigate the corrosion behavior of heat treated samples as well as Ti6Al4V substrate for comparison. In this duplex coating system, High Velocity Oxy Fuel (HVOF) process is used to deposit NiCrAlY interlayer with a constant thickness of 200 μm and WC-Co ceramic top layer with varying thickness of 250 μm, 350 μm and 450 μm deposited by Detonation Spray (DS) process. Different heat treatment temperatures (600-1150 °C) were employed for the coated samples to study the microstructure and the effect on corrosion resistance of the duplex coatings. Potentiodynamic polarization tests were carried to investigate the corrosion performance of duplex coated heat treated samples and the substrate in Ringer's solution at 37 °C and prepared the pH to 5.7. The microstructure upon corrosion after heat treatment was characterized by SEM analysis to understand the corrosion behavior. The results disclosed that at all heat treatment temperatures, all the coated samples exhibited better corrosion resistance than the base substrate. However, during 950 °C and 1150 °C heat treatment temperatures, it was observed highest corrosion potential than 600 °C and 800 °C. The 350 μm thickness, coated sample exhibited highest corrosion resistance compared to other two coated samples and the substrate at all heat treatment temperatures.