Development of Tribological Coatings for Aerospace and Missile Applications

Tribological coatings play a key role in enhancing the performance and service life of engineering systems and components. Over the years, DMRL has worked extensively in studying various aspects of tribological coatings used in aerospace and missile propulsion systems where harsh and hostile environments prevail. The coatings have been deposited mostly by thermal spray processes for these applications. The studies have been done to understand the relationship between microstructure, mechanical properties and tribological behaviour of coatings. In this work, a cermet coating based on carbide to resist wear and an abradable coating based on cobalt alloy to control clearance between the blade tip and shroud for gas turbine aeroengine application and a low friction coating developed for a missile application will be discussed.