What is abrasion resistance & how to minimize or eliminate it
Abrasion Resistance
We are accustomed to hearing about medical scrapes and abrasions, but these potentially painful wounds also exist in the aviation, energy and general manufacturing world. For manufacturers and businesses, the use of materials that are abrasion resistant is often key to cost savings, consistent production, and quality control.
What is abrasion resistance?
Abrasion resistance means an ability to withstand the wear and tear of friction caused by mechanical parts and instances of repetitive scraping or rubbing. Some materials are naturally abrasion resistant, such as chrome, and others can be aided in developing resistant properties through the use of lubricants, coatings, and process improvement.
Types of abrasion
Some general categories for abrasion are listed below with an image describing the hard material in contact with the surface.
- Impact
- Gouging
- High-stress
- Low-stress
How to Minimize or Eliminate Abrasion
Praxair Surface Technologies offers numerous coating solutions to reduce or eliminate abrasion. Some of our most popular coating materials follow.
Coatings for impact abrasion
- Carbides
- Overlays
Coatings for gouging abrasion
- Carbides
- Overlays
Coatings for high-stress abrasion
- Overlays
Coatings for low-stress abrasion
- Ceramics
- Carbides
Coatings optimized for your needs
We offer more than 100 wear-resistant coatings from the tungsten carbide, chromium carbide, ceramic metallic and oxide coating families. Each coating is designed to combat abrasive wear while maintaining enough ductility to resist impact.
|
Coating Family |
Performance Characteristics |
|
Chrome carbide/nickel-chromium (CrC/Ni-Cr) and oxide |
Economy coatings for resistance to wear and corrosion (lower costs but shorter life) |
|
Tungsten carbide (WC) |
Combined resistance to wear, corrosion and oxidation |
|
Tungsten carbide/cobalt (WC/Co) |
Greatest wear resistance, but limited corrosion resistance (must be sealed) |
We will work directly with you to understand your operational needs and identify the best carbide grain size and ratio of hard phase to metal matrix for your applications.