Metal-Ceramic Coatings from a FeCrMoWCBSi Metallic Glass Reinforced with TiB2

Recently, metal-ceramic composites with an amorphous matrix have attracted special attention of researchers. In this work, composite coatings made of Fe-based metallic glass reinforced with titanium diboride (TiB2) were prepared for the first time. For this purpose, the method of electrospark deposition with a nonlocalized electrode consisting of iron granules, TiB2 powder, and amorphizing powder in various ratios was used. The thickness of the prepared composite coatings on 45 steel ranged from 37 to 44 μm. It was shown that the coating structure contains TiB2 particles, the maximum concentration of which is achieved at a titanium diboride to multicomponent powder ratio of 1 to 5. The surface roughness of the coatings had close values of 8.3–8.8 μm. It was found that the wetting angle of coatings reinforced with TiB2 with distilled water changes from 80.4° to 91.4°, whereas the hydrophobicity of the amorphous coating without TiB2 was higher (95.4°). It was found that reinforcing the amorphous coating with TiB2 allows increasing its microhardness from 10.0 to 12.5–14.65 GPa. The average values of the friction coefficient of coatings ranged from 0.76 to 0.58. The coating with the highest concentration of titanium diboride had the highest wear resistance. Its use allows reducing the wear of parts made of steel 45 almost ten times. It has been established that reinforcement of the amorphous coating with TiB2 according to the proposed method does not worsen its oxidation resistance. In general, the use of the developed coatings allows a 13- to 20-fold increase in the oxidation resistance of products made of steel 45 at 700°C.