j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 8 2 1 e8 3 3

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Original Article

Microstructure and wear resistance of WC/Co-

based coating on copper by plasma cladding

Zixin Xie a,1, Chao Zhang a,1, Ruidong Wang a, Dan Li a, Yuwen Zhang a,*,
Guangshi Li a, Xionggang Lu a,**
a
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel & Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferrometallurgy & School
of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

article info abstract

Article history: The evolution of microstructure and wear resistance of Co-based alloy coating reinforced
Received 5 July 2021 with WC phase prepared on copper substrate by plasma cladding were investigated. As the
Accepted 24 August 2021 WC contents increased, several carbide phases appeared in the coating, the shape of these
Available online 27 August 2021 carbide phases grew from punctate and flower to block and dendrite. The proportion of
these carbide phases such as M3W3C and M6W6C in the coating increased, which caused
Keywords: the average hardness to improve from 553.43 HV0.1 to 954.64 HV0.1. Compared with pure
Co-based alloy cobalt-based alloy coating, WC/cobalt-based coating had a higher oxidation degree and
WC strengthening phase forms CoWO4 phase. The Co-based coating with 40% WC exhibited relatively good wear
Oxidation resistance at room temperature, 400
C and 500
C. At 600
C, the sample with 10% WC
Wear resistance possessed the lowest wear weight loss.
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

them, plasma cladding has been a good choice for its low cost
1. Introduction and high production efficiency [11].
Generally, coating materials include Fe-based alloys [12],
Copper and copper alloys play an important role in metallur- Ni-based alloys [13] and Co-based alloys [14]. Among them,
gical industries for their well thermal conductivity. However, Co-based alloys are more widely used due to their better high-
the applications of copper and its alloys were limited, which temperature performance. However, single Co-based alloy
owes to the low wear resistance, especially under high- has limitations in extreme high temperature abrasion envi-
temperature operating condition [1,2]. To strengthen the ronments such as blast furnace tuyere and slag mouth [15]. It
performance of the metal surface, several surface engineering has been reported that composite coatings containing WC,
techniques have been applied to prepare a protective coating, Cr3C2 and TiC particles have better performance than a single
such as thermal spraying, electroplating, laser cladding, alloy coating [16e19]. WC is a common strengthening phase in
magnetron co-sputtering and plasma cladding [3e11]. Among Co-based alloys, particularly used in cutting tools [20e24].

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Y. Zhang), [email protected] (X. Lu).
1
These authors contributed equally: Zixin Xie and Chao Zhang.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.08.114
2238-7854/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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oxidation behavior and the high-temperature wear resistance

of WC/Co-based coatings was clarified.

2. Experimental

The copper with a dimension of 65 mm  50 mm  15 mm was

used as the substrate. Stellite 6 spherical powder with an
average size of 50 mm was used as the cladding material, as
shown in Fig. 1. The composition of Stellite 6 powder is shown
in Table 1. Moreover, WC spherical powder with an average
size of 50 mm was used as the strengthening material. The two
powder materials were mechanically mixed by a planetary
ball miller and then dried by oven for 120 min at 150
C. The
weight percentages of WC in the composite powder are 0, 10,
Fig. 1 e Morphology of Stellite 6 alloy powder. 20, 30 and 40%, respectively.
The coating preparation were carried out on a plasma
cladding machine (PTA-400A) equipped with a powder feeding
Recently, the phase and properties of WC/Co-based coating system. To reduce the heat loss of the plasma arc and promote
have been investigated on different substrates such as boron the formation of the molten pool, the copper substrate was
steel [20], low carbon steel [21], titanium alloy [25], aluminum preheated to 800
C by induction heater before cladding. The
alloy [26] and magnesium alloy [27]. These researches optimized cladding parameters were as follows: the powder
revealed that the Co-based composite coatings containing WC delivery velocity was 30 g/min, the cladding speed was
particle have better wear resistance, which is mainly related 180 mm/min, the current was 140 A, the plasma gas (argon),
to the formation of carbide phase. Zhong et al. [21] reported powder feeding gas (argon) and shielding gas (argon) was 3 L/
WC/Co-based coatings on low carbon steel substrate. The min, 3 L/min and 12 L/min, respectively.
solidification characteristics included dendritic, interdendritic The cross-section microstructure of the composite coat-
eutectic structures and unmelted carbides. Liu et al. [22] pre- ings was observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM,
pared WC-Co composite powder and then cladded it on steel FEI Nova Nano SEM 450) equipped with energy dispersive
surface. The coating had the fine microstructure and good spectrometer (EDS). X-ray diffraction (XRD, Bruker-AXS D8
wear resistance. Xu et al. [23] fabricated a Stellite6-WC com- Advance) was used to identify the phase composition utilizing
posite coating on the surface of medium carbon steel. The a Cu Ka diffraction (l ¼ 1.54056
A) with a scanning angle
primary phase was composed of Co-rich g solid solution and ranged from 10
to 90
and a scanning speed of 8
/min.
the eutectic structure contained Co-rich g solid solution with The hardness was measured by micro-Vickers hardness
carbides such as Cr23C6, Co3W3C and WC phase. Undissolved tester (HVS-1000M) with a load of 100 g and a holding time of
WC particle can be observed in the Co-based alloy matrix. Li 10 s. The high-temperature oxidation behavior of the samples
et al. [25] investigated WC/Co-based coating on Tie6Ale4V was analyzed by thermogravimetric analyzer (STA 449 F3).
substrates and proved that the formation of carbide phases The dimension of samples was 3 mm  3 mm  3 mm. Table 2
such as Co3W3C was the main reason for the improvement of shows the composition of samples. The experimental atmo-
wear resistance. sphere was a mixture of 50% N2 and 50% O2 with a flow rate of
However, the oxidation behavior of composite coatings 40 mL/min. The sample was heated to 700
C at a rate of 10
C/
with different WC content and its influence on high- min and then cooled in the furnace.
temperature wear resistance were often ignored. To obtain a The wear resistance of the coatings was tested by a high
WC-Co based composite coating with better protective per- temperature fraction and wear tester (MMUD-5B) at room
formance in extreme environments, the effect of oxidation temperature, 400
C, 500
C and 600
C, respectively. The sur-
behavior on wear resistance should be studied in detail. In faces of wear samples (with dimension of F 4 mm  15 mm)
addition, to the best our knowledge, there are few reports were the section of the bottom region of the coatings. Before the
about WC/Co-based composite coatings on copper surface, test, the surface of each sample was polished with 2000 mesh
especially with different WC contents. Therefore, in this sandpaper to ensure the same roughness. These samples were
study, Co-based coatings with different WC contents were sliding against the GCr15 steel (63e65 HRC) friction pair at room
prepared on copper substrate by plasma cladding. The effects temperature and Al2O3 (80e90 HRC) friction pair at high tem-
of WC contents on the microstructure, hardness, oxidation perature. The conditions of wear test were 50 N applied loads,
behavior and high-temperature wear resistance of coatings 100 r/min rotated speed and 30 min application time. The wear
were systematically studied. The relationship between the weight loss of the samples was weighed by an analytical

Table 1 e Composition of stellite 6 powder (wt.%).

Elements C Cr Si W Fe Mo Ni Mn Co
wt.% 1.15 29.00 1.10 4.00 3.00 1.00 3.00 0.50 bal.
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pore and crack can be observed in the SEM images. The basic
Table 2 e Composition of each sample in
microstructure of Co-based composite coating is shown as a
thermogravimetric analysis experiment (wt.%).
hypoeutectic structure, containing dendrite and the inter-
Samples WC Stellite 6 Cu
dendritic eutectics, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The Co-rich phase in
1 0 0 100 the molten pool first solidifies from the liquid phase to form
2 0 100 0 dendrites. Other elements in the molten pool are enriched in
3 10 90 0
the residual liquid between dendrites and form eutectic car-
4 20 80 0
5 30 70 0
bide structure [21].
6 40 60 0 As the WC weight percentage increases from 0% to 20%, the
grains of the coating were refined. A third microstructure
appears in the coating for the first time, which is different
balance with an accuracy of 0.1 mg. After wear test, the from the dendrite and interdendrite eutectics. The third
morphology of the worn samples was observed by SEM to microstructure mainly distributes in the eutectic region, as
analyze the wear mechanism. shown in Fig. 2(c). As the WC weight percentage increases to
40%, the third microstructure gradually becomes larger and
connects into one piece, separates from the eutectic structure,
3. Results and discussion and directly distributes on the matrix phase of the coating.
The shape of the third microstructure grows from punctate to
3.1. Effect of WC contents on the microstructure block and dendrite. The distribution of the third microstruc-
ture gradually changes from relative disorder to ordered
Figure 2 shows the microstructure of the top region of the arrangement, as shown in Fig. 2(d)e(e). These phenomena
composite coatings with different WC contents. No obvious indicates that the third microstructure is the intermediate

Fig. 2 e SEM images of Co-based coatings with different WC contents in the top region: (a) 0% WC; (b) 10% WC; (c) 20% WC; (d)
30% WC; (e) 40% WC. The point A, B and C were the third microstructure with line shape, block shape and dendrite shape,
respectively.
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Fig. 3 e SEM images of Co-based coatings with different WC contents in the middle region: (a) 0% WC; (b) 10% WC; (c) 20%
WC; (d) 30% WC; (e) 40% WC. The point A was the WC spherical particle, and the point B, C, D and E were the third
microstructure with punctate shape, flower shape, block shape and star shape, respectively.

product between WC and Co-based alloys. The crystal struc- middle region is lower than that of the top region and the
ture of this phase is similar to that of eutectic carbides in the grain size is smaller. This result shows that the solidification
Co-based coating without WC added, so the third micro- rate of molten pool of the coating in the middle region is
structure first distributes in the eutectic region. When the higher than that of the top region.
content of intermediate product exceeds the limitation of Table 3 exhibits the element composition of different mi-
eutectic region, it begins to distribute directly on the matrix crostructures of the coatings in Fig. 3. The main elements in
phase and becomes the third kind of grain with independent dendrite are Co (60 at.%) and Cr (20 at.%). The eutectic in the
distribution rule. coating with 10% WC has less Cr and Co and more W and C
Figure 3 shows the microstructure of the middle region of than the Co-based coating without WC added. As WC weight
the composite coatings with different WC contents. It can be percentage raises to 20%, the third microstructure appears.
seen that the microstructure of Co-based coating without WC According to the EDS results (Table 3), the third microstruc-
added in Fig. 3(a) is similar to that of the top region in Fig. 2(a). ture includes less Co, less Cu and more C compared to the
Compared with the microstructure of the coatings in the top matrix. In addition, the content of W in this third micro-
region, the grain size of dendrites in Fig. 3(b) is smaller. In structure reaches 23.97 at.%, indicating that this third micro-
Fig. 3(c), most of the third microstructure is distributed in the structure is consisted mainly of new carbide phases
whole eutectic region, while a few of them directly distribute containing W. In addition to the flower shape, the main
on the matrix phase. In Fig. 3(d), microstructure with flower element contents of these microstructures with different
shape appears in the coating and dendrite segregation can be shapes are similar, which can be speculated to be composed of
observed. The grain size of the third microstructure in carbide phase and matrix.
dendrite is smaller than that of the top region, as shown in Figure 4 shows the microstructure of the bottom region of
Fig. 3(e). The microstructure uniformity of the coating in the the composite coatings with different WC contents.
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Table 3 e Element composition of different microstructures in the coating (at.%).

WC (wt.%) Point C Ni W Cr Co Cu
0 Dendrite 2.73 2.35 0.65 21.13 60.82 4.50
Eutectic 8.61 1.58 1.06 37.18 36.59 2.47
10 Dendrite 3.17 2.22 0.76 21.14 59.76 4.62
Eutectic 10.62 1.63 2.13 36.62 35.13 1.74
20 Matrix 3.38 3.23 2.68 22.14 58.93 3.92
WC spherical particle 46.15 0.11 48.04 0.55 0.88 0.34
Microstructure in punctate shape 6.62 4.51 23.97 22.94 34.16 0.99
30 Matrix 4.80 2.85 4.03 27.06 48.98 3.00
Microstructure in block shape 8.81 3.70 23.56 23.54 33.57 1.01
Microstructure in flower shape 6.96 2.93 13.31 25.44 43.91 1.83
40 Matrix 3.45 2.71 2.36 39.23 42.75 2.32
Microstructure in star shape 6.27 3.99 29.48 17.58 34.74 1.34

Compared with Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, it can be seen that the WC WC particles. With the increase of the distance between car-
particles have a tendency to sink in the bottom region of bide phases and WC particles, the carbide phases changes
coatings. Moreover, some segregated Cu can be observed in from block shape to flower shape, as shown in Fig. 4(d). Dis-
Fig. 4(b). Combined with Table 3, Cu is mainly dissolved in Co- solved WC particle can be observed in Fig. 4(e). Dendrite
based solid solution and the maximum content of Cu in Co- segregation occurs in the bottom region of each coating.
based solid solution is about 5%. When the proportion of Cu Compared with WC/Stellite 6 composite coating on steel
in the molten pool get higher than 5%, the segregation of Cu substrates [21], the high thermal conductivity of copper sub-
can occur. In addition, the carbide phases distribute around strate is easier to lead to high solidification rate of molten

Fig. 4 e SEM images of Co-based coatings with different WC contents in the bottom region: (a) 0% WC; (b) 10% WC; (c) 20%
WC; (d) 30% WC; (e) 40% WC.
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Fig. 5 e XRD patterns of different regions in the Co-based composite coatings: (a) top region; (b) middle region; (b) bottom
region.

pool, thus resulting in dendrite segregation in the coating. To can be found in the XRD patterns of samples in the bottom
reduce the segregation of Cu, it may need to take measures to region, but cannot be observed in the top region and the
decrease the melting of copper substrate during the cladding middle region. This may be related to the sink phenomenon of
process. WC phase, which is consistent with Fig. 4.
Figure 5 shows the XRD patterns of the different regions in
WC/Co-based coatings. The existence of a-Co can be 3.2. Effect of WC contents on hardness and oxidation
confirmed. The composite coatings with 0% and 10% WC are behavior
mainly composed of a-Co, CuNi solid solution and Cr3C2. As
the weight percentage of WC increases, the carbide phases The hardness curves of coatings are shown in Fig. 6(a). As the
such as M3W3C and M6W6C appear in the coating. WC peak WC weight percentage raises, the hardness value of Co-based

Fig. 6 e (a) Hardness curve of Co-based coatings with different WC contents; (b) Average hardness of Co-based coatings with
different WC contents.
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composite coatings tends to increase. The undissolved WC in Figure 7 shows the thermogravimetric analysis curves of
the coating possesses the highest hardness. The average copper and Co-based coatings with different WC content.
hardness of coatings is shown in Fig. 6(b). With the addition of The oxidation weight gain of Co-based coatings is always
WC reinforcing phase, the average hardness of Co-based lower than copper, indicating their better oxidation resis-
composite coatings increases from 553.43 HV0.1 to 954.64 tance. The Co-based coating without WC added shows the
HV0.1. According to the above microstructural analysis, the best oxidation resistance. As the weight percentage of WC
improvement of hardness is mainly attributed to two aspects: raises more than 10%, the oxidation weight gain tends to
(1) the addition of WC strengthening phase refines the den- decrease gradually. Furthermore, the initial oxidation tem-
drites in the coating, thus improving the average hardness of peratures of the copper, Co-based coating without WC added
the coating by fine grain strengthening mechanism; (2) the and WC/Co-based composite coatings are 300
C, 400
C and
formation of hard phases such as M3W3C and M6W6C plays a 425
C, respectively.
role of dispersion strengthening and improves the micro- Figure 8 shows the XRD patterns of coatings with different
hardness of the coating. From Fig. 6(a), it is worth noting that WC contents after thermogravimetric analysis. The main
the hardness of the bottom region of the 40% WC/Co-based oxide phases in the Co-based coating without WC added are
coating is higher, resulting in the high error bar in Fig. 6(b). CoO and Co3O4. In the WC/Co-based composite coating, the
This is related to the sink phenomenon of WC particles main oxide phase is CoWO4. Combined with the result in
(Fig. 4(e)). WC particles have high hardness, which directly Fig. 7, as the WC content increases from 0% to 10%, the
improves the hardness of bottom region of the coating. oxidation weight gain obviously increases, which is mainly

Fig. 7 e Thermogravimetric analysis curves of copper and coatings with different WC contents: (a) Copper; (b) 0%WC; (c) 10%
WC; (d) 20%WC; (e) 30%WC; (f) 40%WC.
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higher hardness can better resist plastic shear caused by the

friction pair [29,30]. Therefore, the wear mechanism of the
coating is mainly abrasive wear. In addition, some debris of
friction pair appear in the coating with 40% WC (Fig. 11(e)),
which may be due to cold welding during the friction process
[31]. It can be concluded that WC particles has a great influ-
ence on the wear resistance at room temperature of Co-based
coating. At room temperature, the change of coating micro-
structure leads to better wear resistance, and the decrease of
adhesive wear mechanism is the main reason for the reduc-
tion of wear weight loss.
The wear weight loss of the Co-based composite coatings
with different WC contents at 400
C, 500
C and 600
C is
shown in Fig. 12. It can be seen that as the temperature in-
creases, the wear weight loss of the coatings always shows an
increasing trend. At 400
C, as the weight percentage of WC
raises, the wear weight loss decreases rapidly. The wear
weight loss of the 40%WC/Co-based coating is only 0.23 times
Fig. 8 e XRD patterns of Co-based coatings with different that of the coating without WC added. At 500
C, the wear
WC contents after thermogravimetric analysis: (a) 0%WC; weight loss of the coating without WC added is still the
(b) 10%WC; (c) 20%WC; (d) 30%WC; (e) 40%WC. highest among all coatings. The 40%WC/Co-based coating has
the lowest wear weight loss of 9.5 mg, which is 0.5 times that
of the coating without WC added. However, the Co-based
coating with 10%WC has the lowest wear weight loss at
due to the formation of CoWO4. According to the literature 600
C. This result may be related to the oxidation behavior of
[28], CoWO4 can play a role of protective oxide layer on the coating at high temperature.
coatings. Figure 13 shows the friction coefficient curves of the Co-
based composite coatings with different WC contents at
3.3. Effect of WC contents on wear resistance 400
C, 500
C and 600
C. From Fig. 13(a), it can be seen that the
coating without WC added has the lowest friction coefficient
The schematic diagram of friction experiment is shown in at 400
C. According to the results in Fig. 7, the Co-based
Fig. 9. The wear weight loss and friction coefficient of Co-based coating without WC added starts to oxidize at 400
C, indi-
composite coatings with different WC contents at room tem- cating its higher oxidation degree. The oxides on the surface
perature are shown in Fig. 10(a) and Fig. 10(b), respectively. It may have a certain lubricating effect on the coating surface,
can be seen that the wear weight loss and friction coefficients thereby reducing the friction coefficient. As the weight per-
both decreases with the increase of WC contents. The Co- centage of WC raises, the friction coefficient also increases,
based composite coating with 40% WC particles has the which may be due to the lower oxidation degree. From
lower wear weight loss and friction coefficient. The wear Fig. 13(b), the Co-based coating with 10%WC has the lowest
weight loss of the Co-based composite coating with 40% WC is friction coefficient at 500
C. At this temperature, the coating
about 0.27 times that of the coating without WC added, and the has been oxidized. It is worth noting that the friction coeffi-
ratio of friction coefficient between the former and the latter is cient of most coatings exhibits periodic fluctuations, which is
about 2/5. Moreover, the curve of friction coefficient is rela-
tively stable. Combined with the microstructure evolution of
coatings, the improvement of wear resistance at room tem-
perature is mainly attributed to the increase of carbide phases
including WC, M3W3C and M6W6C in the coating, which refines
the grains and improves the average hardness.
Figure 11 shows the SEM images of worn surfaces of the Co-
based coatings with different WC contents at room tempera-
ture. In the coatings with 0% and 10% WC, obvious micro
cutting furrows and micro pits accompanied with severe
plastic deformation can be observed, as shown in Fig. 11(a)
and (b). This indicates that the wear mechanism of the coat-
ings with 0% and 10% WC is adhesive wear and abrasive wear.
With the increase of WC content, the furrow becomes shal-
lower and the pit becomes smaller. As shown in Fig. 11(c)e(e),
the signs of plastic deformation of the coatings with 20%e40%
WC are not so obvious, only shallow grooves can be observed.
Due to the fine-grain strengthening effect and the dispersion
strengthening effect of various carbides, the coatings with Fig. 9 e Schematic diagram of friction experiment.
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Fig. 10 e (a) Wear weight loss and (b) friction coefficients curves of coatings with different WC contents at room temperature.

due to the repeated generation and peeling of the oxide layer reflects that the oxide layer of the coating with high WC
on the surface of the coating [31]. With the increase of WC content may be easier to peel off. The friction coefficient at
content, the fluctuation range tends to increase, which 600
C is similar to that at 500
C (Fig. 13(c)).

Fig. 11 e SEM images of worn surfaces of Co-based coatings with different WC contents at room temperature: (a) 0% WC; (b)
10% WC; (c) 20% WC; (d) 30% WC; (e) 40% WC.
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Table 4 e EDS analysis results of the marked points in

Fig. 14 (at.%).
Point Co C Cr O W Ni Fe Cu
1 41.56 2.71 9.57 35.47 2.42 1.71 3.58 2.98
2 29.67 3.24 7.65 38.76 12.95 3.43 2.33 1.97
3 27.76 4.38 7.57 41.24 14.21 2.13 1.98 0.73
4 27.95 2.19 6.54 39.87 13.85 4.12 1.46 4.02
5 26.55 3.21 8.51 42.39 14.68 1.28 1.97 1.41

coating has suffered significant abrasive wear. From Fig. 14(b), it

can be seen that the coating with 10% WC forms a relatively flat
plane and layered structure without obvious signs of abrasive
wear. According to the results in Fig. 8, the oxide (CoWO4)
formed on the coating surface after adding WC is different from
that without WC (CoO and Co3O4). The EDS results in Table 4
also prove that the wear surface of the WC/Co-based coating
has a higher W content. The formation of the CoWO4 oxide
Fig. 12 e Wear weight loss of coatings with different WC
layer may reduce the cutting effect of the friction pair on the
contents at high temperature.
coating surface, leading to a reduction in abrasive wear. From
Fig. 14(c) and (d), it can be seen that some WC spherical parti-
cles are embedded in the coating, which also plays an impor-
tant protective effect on the surface of the coating. Combining
To further clarify the wear mechanism of composite coat-
the results of worn morphology and friction coefficient, the
ings at high temperature, the worn morphologies of each
WC/Co-based coating conforms to the oxidation wear mecha-
coating at 600
C was analyzed, as shown in Fig. 14. As shown in
nism [32]. In addition, some dissolved WC can be found on the
Fig. 14(a), a large number of micro cuts can be observed on the
worn surface of the Co-based coating with 40%WC, which may
Co-based coating without WC added, indicating that the
be the reason for the decrease in wear resistance.

Fig. 13 e Friction coefficients curves of coatings with different WC contents at different temperatures: (a) 400
C; (b) 500
C; (c)
600
C.
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Fig. 14 e SEM images of worn surfaces of Co-based coatings with different WC contents at 600
C: (a) 0% WC; (b) 10% WC; (c)
20% WC; (d) 30% WC; (e) 40% WC.

composite coatings were 300
C, 400
C and 425
C,

4. Conclusions respectively.
(3) At room temperature, the wear resistance of the coat-
(1) The microstructure of the Co-based coating without ings gradually increased with the increase of WC con-
WC added was characterized by a dendritic structure tent, which was mainly attributed to the increase of
containing a-Co and an interdendritic eutectic con- carbide phases including WC, M3W3C and M6W6C in the
taining Co and Cr carbides. With the addition of WC coating. The wear mechanism changed from adhesive
particles, new carbide phases such as M3W3C and wear to abrasive wear. The wear resistance of the
M6W6C appeared in the coating. These carbides first coating with 40% WC was only 0.27 times that of the
exist in the eutectic structure and then distribute on coating without WC added.
the matrix phase. Copper segregation occurred when (4) As the temperature increased, the wear resistance of
the Cu content in cobalt-rich dendrites is higher than the composite coating decreased. At 400
C and 500
C,
5%. Dendrite segregation occurred in the middle and the wear resistance of the coatings increased with the
bottom regions. increase of WC content, but showed a trend of first
(2) As the WC content increased from 0% to 40%, the increasing and then decreasing at 600
C. The formation
average hardness of the coating increased from 553.43 of the CoWO4 oxide layer had a certain protective effect
HV0.1 to 954.64 HV0.1. The oxidation resistance of the on the coating surface. The wear mechanism of the Co-
Co-based coating decreased after adding WC, but it based coating without WC was abrasive wear and the
increased slightly with the increase of WC content. The wear mechanism of the WC/Co-based coating was
initial oxidation temperatures of the copper, Co-based oxidation wear.
coating without WC added and WC/Co-based
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confocal dual magnetron co-sputtering. Adv Eng Mater

Declaration of Competing Interest 2017:1700687. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201700687.
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