Friction and wear properties of the zirconia coatings prepared by plasma spraying and laser remelting

The conventional and nanostructural zirconia coatings were prepared using plasma spraying,and then the nano zirconia coating was melted by laser. Friction and wear properties of conventional,nanostructural and laser remelted zirconia coatings were investigated at room and high temperatures. The experimental results show that the wear resistance properties of the nanostructural coating were obviously better than the conventional ones,and the nanostructural coating treated by laser remelting had the lowest friction coefficient and the best wear resistance. The analysis on surface micrographs of the three coatings shows that the surface roughness,porosity and cracking status were significantly different from each other,which resulted in a large difference in friction and wear properties for three zirconia coatings. The results indicate that nano powders plasma spraying, combining with laser remelting,was an effective approach to improve the performance of the zirconia coating.