Investigation on the Wear Resistance of Ni-B-TiO2 Composite Coatings for Dry Crushing Application

To achieve a more important service life of hammers, used in crushing process, a Ni-B-TiO2 composite coating was electrodeposited on heat treated AISI P20 using conventional and novel methods. The prepared coatings underwent different tribological tests to quantify the coating that offers the best resistance against wear. For this reason, abrasive wear tests such as pin-on-disk test and multi-pass scratch test were performed to evaluate the abrasive wear resistance of the coatings under a round counterbody (alumina ball) and a sharper contrerbody (sphero-conical indenter), respectively. In addition, the impact-sliding test was also performed to assess the impact resistance of the composite coatings. The obtained results showed that the novel method promotes the best mechanical and tribological properties of the elaborated Ni-B-TiO2 composite coating. This is attributed to the fact of adding TiO2 sol into Ni-B electrolyte which enhances the dispersive strength of the formed TiO2 nanoparticles, contrary to adding solid TiO2 nanoparticles into the electroplating bath.