Nowadays, the recycled fine aggregate sourced from construction and demolition waste is not frequently used in manufacturing of epoxy resin coatings. Therefore, the main novelty of the article is to prepare green epoxy resin coatings modified with recycled fine aggregate in a replacement ratio of natural fine aggregate ranged from 20 to 100%. The microstructural properties of the aggregates and epoxy resin were analyzed using micro-computed tomography, scanning electron microscopy and nanoindentation. The macroscopic mechanical properties were examined using pull-off strength tests. The highest improvement of the mechanical properties was observed for epoxy resin coatings modified with 20% of natural fine aggregate and 80% of recycled fine aggregate. It has been found that even 100% of natural fine aggregate can be successfully replaced using the recycled fine aggregate with consequent improvement of the pull-off strength of analyzed epoxy resin coatings. In order to confirm the assumptions resulting from the conducted research, an original analytical and numerical failure model proved the superior behavior of modified coating was developed.
The paper presents the characteristics of Ti-Mo-xTiC composites manufactured under experimentally selected conditions using the upgraded field-assisted sintering technique (U-FAST). Mixtures of microstructural titanium powders and nc-Ti0.9Mo0.1C/C carbide powders protected from oxidation by a carbon shell were subjected to sintering. The powders with nc-Ti0.9Mo0.1C/C contents of 10 and 20 wt% were used. The content of carbon forming the carbon shell was approximately 3 or 40 wt%. Composites with near full density were reinforced with titanium carbides in a Ti-Mo matrix. The composites with the highest content of reinforcing phase are characterized by the highest values of hardness, Young's modulus and wear resistance. Although the hardness of these composites is similar to that of ceramics, their nature is not brittle. Despite the high value of the Young's modulus, the addition of hard particles of the reinforcing phase to the titanium matrix significantly increases the values of the H/E ratio of the composites compared to the reference samples of cp-Ti and Ti6Al4V. A comparison of the research results for the composites with the highest share of titanium carbides showed that lowering the sintering temperature from 1300 to 1150 °C resulted in the inhibition of grain growth, a reduction in composite heterogeneity, composite roughness and hardness as well as a rise in the Young's modulus. An increase in the sintering temperature from 1150 to 1300 °C contributed to the higher high angle grain boundaries (HAGB) content.
Chromium carbonitride coatings were deposited by cathodic arc physical vapor deposition technology at a temperature of 300 °C, as were used the reactive gasses CH4 and N2. The structural analysis of the CrN coating showed a polycrystalline structure with mixed CrN and Cr2N phases. All studied coatings, including the CrC exhibits fcc structure. The phases were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements where a surface oxidation was also detected. The increase of the CH4 gas flow during the deposition process leads to a parabolic trend with the highest hardness of 33.5 GPa for the coating deposited at CH4 / N2 = 0.53. At the same time the lowest coefficient of friction for both counterparts Al2O3 and ZrO2 (0.28 and 0.26, respectively) were measured at CH4 / N2 = 1.86. The tribological tests reveal that the wear of the coatings increases with an increasing CH4 flow rate, whereas the coefficient of friction decreases. This observed contradiction is explained by a phenomenon described as the effect of Rebinder.
In this study, heat-treated and multisurface engineered DIN 1.2367 tool steel was subjected to room and elevated temperature wear tests, and the effect of nitriding on its tribological behavior was investigated. CrN, AlTiN, and CrN/AlTiN coatings with a total thickness of 2 µm were obtained by arc cathodic physical vapor deposition on conventional heat-treated and gas-nitrided steels. The white layer formed during nitriding was removed, and a diffusion layer (100 µm) was achieved in the cross section of the steel having a tempered martensitic matrix. The highest surface hardness was attained with an integral coating (CrN/AlTiN), and surface hardness increased even more after nitriding due to the formation of a multicomponent ceramic layer on top of the diffusion layer. The room temperature wear tests performed against an alumina counterpart revealed that (i) CrN/AlTiN-coated steel had the highest friction coefficient of 0.26, which further increased to 0.33 by nitriding due to the increase in shear strength, and that (ii) with increasing surface hardness, the specific wear rates (W) of the heat-treated and coated steels could be ranked as follows: WCrN/AlTiN < WAlTiN < WCrN. The wear rates decreased when nitriding was carried out prior to coating. In order to simulate the aluminum extrusion conditions, hot wear behavior of the surfaces against AA6080 alloy at 450 °C was investigated. The hot wear tests revealed that (i) high friction coefficients were reached due to the adhesive characteristic of aluminum to the surfaces, (ii) the nitrided and CrN/AlTiN-coated sample exhibited the lowest wear rate among all studied surfaces, and (iii) the film damage on the worn surfaces mostly occurred in the form of droplet delamination.