What are the best wear-resistant coatings?
At EP Coatings, we have a wealth of experience in supplying a range of thermal spray coatings to resolve problems of excessive wear, corrosion, and thermal degradation to metal surfaces.
We have combined our knowledge and expertise from over the years to provide a breakdown of the most popular wear-resistant coatings for different types of metal surfaces and engineering projects.
What are wear-resistant coatings?
Wear-resistant coatings protect metal surfaces from excessive wear and abrasion as a result of heat-damage, lubrication, and friction. A wear-resistant coating is also applied to metal surfaces to help increase the hardness of the surface and to prolong their lifespan.
What are the benefits of wear-resistant coatings?
A wear-resistant coating helps to protect metals that are close together from damage caused by wear and abrasion. Not only does the coating prevent friction and excessive wear, but it also helps to improve the longevity of different components, increase their high-temperature resistance, and performance.
What are the best wear-resistant coatings?
If you’re in the market for a wear-resistant to protect and enhance your product, we recommend considering the following coatings.
Thermal spray coatings
Thermal spray coating is one of the best wear-resistant coatings for protecting components from erosion. Thermal spraying is a cost-effective solution for maintaining the component’s performance and durability, which is why it’s one of the many benefits of using it on alloys. We’ve listed some of the different thermal spray coating techniques that offer the best protection and wear-resistant coating for different types of components.
Plasma spraying
There are many benefits to protecting components with plasma spraying. Not only does it protect components from corrosion, but it prevents components from wear and tear and weather damage, making it ideal for protecting components in aggressive environments. Plasma spraying can protect a range of materials, including pure metals, alloys, ceramics, and chromium carbides. You can learn more about the benefits of this type of coating on our plasma spraying page.
HVOF
High-Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) is one of the most popular wear-resistant coatings as it helps to improve a component’s performance and is a cost-effective solution for protecting its functionality. HVOF is used to coat components that are vulnerable to the weather’s elements and helps protect them against corrosion, which makes it a good choice for preserving mechanical wear of bearings such as alloys and transmission components.
Arc wire spraying
Arc wire spraying is one of the best wear-resistant coatings for mechanical parts. The process of creating an arc between two electrically charged metallic wires to form a high-bond strength works well on components that perform in water as it protects them against corrosion when they’re wet.
Why use EP Coatings?
We provide a wide range of wear-resistant coatings for metal surfaces in different environments. With years of experience in supplying thermal spray coatings and using different techniques and processes, we can advise on the best wear-resistant coating for your component or project.
Get in touch to speak to our technical team today.
Hard-chrome plating
Hard-chrome plating is one of the best coating solutions that doesn’t impact resistance to wear and tear or affect the product’s performance. Not only is this type of coating used for its wear and corrosion resistance, but it’s used for its low-friction, lubricant characteristics too. Hard-chrome plating can be applied to most metal types, but it’s mostly applied to stainless steel alloys, as well as copper, aluminium, titanium, and brass. However, it isn’t the greenest coating solution as the electroplating process involves depositing chromium from a chromic acid, releasing harmful toxins in the environment.
Anodize
Anodizing is the most popular coating method to use to protect aluminium and prevent corrosion. The lightness of it means that multiple applications will help to achieve better protection. As well as its wear-resistant characteristic, anodizing provides metal with the appropriate surface to paint over. However, the lightness of anodizing means that it’s not the best corrosion-resistant coating for materials that come into contact with liquid as it can crack the layers.
Electroless Nickel
Electroless nickel is one of the most effective types of hard-wearing coatings for aluminium and titanium. Using electroless nickel gives a hard-wearing and natural lubricity coating. The process of depositing NI-P in a chemical bath gives the metal surface a consistent abrasion-resistant layer.
Nitride
Nitride is one of the best wear-resistant coatings because of the hard-wearing layer it provides. The process involves introducing nitrogen to the outer surface, which gives it the abrasive-wear coating. However, the process does involve using high temperatures, which isn’t suitable for all metals, especially not titanium as it’s a thin component. That’s why a nitride coating is most suitable for simple materials that don’t have any complex geometry.
Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO)
PEO is used to create a hard, wear-resistant coating for lightweight metals, like aluminium, magnesium, and titanium. In addition to its corrosion resistance, one of the main benefits of using PEO is that it’s environmentally-friendly. Coatings with PEO are free from toxic by-products and chromium, which means they are REACH and RoHS compliant.