An investigation on the tribological properties of nano-tungsten carbide coating by ESD

Nano-tungsten carbide (WC-12Co) can improve the wear resistance and hardness of the surface. The aim of this paper is to characterize the wear in WC-12Co coating on the surface of FS438 die steel using electro-spark deposition (ESD). A sliding contact experiment was conducted on a friction and wear tester using GCr15 bearing steel as friction pair. The wear loss of the coating was measured, and the wear coefficient is calculated, and a finite element model was used with the Umeshmotion subroutine to estimate the wear depth and contact stress. The results showed that the wear loss increases with the increase of the load, and the friction coefficient and the wear coefficient decrease with the increase of the speed. The simulation results showed the inner and outer contact stresses are greater than those in the central position, and the wear trend of the disc is consistent with the contact stress change trend. The wear depth in WC-12Co was numerically simulated to an acceptable accuracy.