Investigation of wear behaviour and surface roughness of zirconium coated 315 stainless steel

The wear and surface characteristics of the products are very important to decide the quality of the products. The surface engineering is a multidisciplinary task intended to tailor made the properties of the engineering components due to which their serviceability and function can be improved. In the present experimental work, SS 315 austenitic stainless steel was chosen as substrate materials and zirconium powder was coated on substrate using physical vapour deposition technique. The coated and uncoated specimens were tested for its surface finish by non-contact surface roughness tester and wear characteristics using pin on disc apparatus. The results were compared and it revealed that the surface finish of the zirconium coated specimen is higher than uncoated specimen due to the deposition of the fine particles over the substrate. It was noticed that the weight loss of coated specimen is less than uncoated specimen. The wear rate of the coated and uncoated specimen was calculated as 2.14 grams/m and 3.57 grams/m respectively. The wear resistance of the coated specimen was improved over uncoated specimen. The specific wear rate of the coated specimen was observed as 0.107 grams / Nm and uncoated specimen was observed as 0.1785 grams/Nm.