Improvement of the Wear Resistance of Ferrous Alloys by Electroless Plating of Nickel

The electroless nickel (Ni) and composite nickel – nanodiamond (Ni+DND) coatings are investigated in this study. The method EFTTOM-NICKEL for electroless nickel plating with nanosized strengthening particles (DND 4-6 nm) is applied for the coating deposition. The coatings are deposited on ferrous alloys samples. The wear resistance of the coatings is performed by friction wear tests under 50-400 MPa loading conditions – in accordance with a Polish Standard PN-83/H-04302. The microstructure observations are made by optic metallographic microscope GX41 OLIMPUS and the microhardness is determined by Vickers Method. Tests for wear resistance, thickness and microhardness measurements of the coatings without heat treatment and heat treatment are performed. The heat treatment regime is investigated with the aim to optimize the thermal process control of the coated samples without excessive tempering of the substrate material. The surface fatigue failure is determined by contact fatigue test with the purpose to establish suitable conditions for production of high performance materials. (paper)