The applicability of WC-10Co-4Cr/Si3N4 tribopair to the different natural waters

Natural water is widely used as working or lubricating medium instead of the traditional oil. Hard materials have potential application to solve the abrasive wear caused by the silt suspending in natural water and poor lubrication of water. As the candidate materials can worked in water, the tribological characteristics of the tribological properties of high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying WC-10Co-4Cr coating combined with sintered Si3N4 were investigated under different natural water lubrication, including natural silt-laden and filtered water from sea and river. In addition, distilled water was used as typical water lubricants to study the effect on the tribological behaviours. The tribological results of the tribopair exhibit excellent friction and wear resistance behaviours under the natural waters. The average steady-state friction coefficients of the tribopair under natural water are below 0.009, whilst the average wear rates under all natural waters are below 9 × 10− 12 cm3/(N·m) for both materials. The results indicate that the WC-10Co-4Cr/Si3N4 tribopair owns wider applicability to different natural waters. The water hydraulic components with this tribopair can work in different water areas in word, even unfiltered natural waters as pressure medium.