Wear behavior of electrodeposited nickel coating on ZP5 zinc alloy

Abstract

Nickel coating on zinc alloy is quite promising for the achievement of an additional wear improvement in corrosive environment. To investigate this point, block-on-ring tests were carried out. Blocks measuring 5 × 5×20 mm3 were obtained from real locking components, made of ZP5 EN 12844 and coated by Zn/Cu1Ni5s ISO 1458. As counter material, an AISI 304 with a 40 mm diameter cylindrical geometry was used. Three load levels (5, 10 and 15 N) and three coating thickness levels (low: 5 to 10 µm; medium: 10 to 15 µm; high: 15 to 20 µm) were considered. The sliding distance was initially set to 500 m. Then, since the coating was worn out very quickly during the test, the sliding distance was set to 150 m. The results, in terms of volume loss due to wear, were processed using the statistical tool of two-way ANOVA and Fisher test. It was assessed that the wear rate is strongly affected by the applied load. The coating thickness does not significantly affect the wear.