Plasma Science and Technology

Related content
- Effects of various power process
Effect of Spraying Parameters on Deposition parameters on deposition efficiency of
plasma-sprayed Al2O3-40% wt.TiO2
Efficiency and Wear Behavior of Plasma Sprayed coatings
Y J Wang, J Y Xu, Q H Zhao et al.

Alumina-Titania Composite Coatings - Effect of Spraying Parameters on the

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties
of Micro-Plasma Sprayed Alumina-Titania
To cite this article: M. Vijay et al 2009 Plasma Sci. Technol. 11 666 Coatings
Liu Gu, Wang Liuying, Chen Guiming et al.

- Wear Behavior of Al-SiC Metal Matrix

Composite under various Corrosive
Environments
View the article online for updates and enhancements. Smrutiranjan Pradhan, Tapan Kumar
Barman, Prasanta Sahoo et al.

Recent citations
- The investigation of the microstructure
behavior of the spray distances and argon
gas flow rates effects on the aluminum
coating using self-generated atmospheric
plasma spray system
Sh. Khandanjou et al

- Effect of Power and Stand-Off Distance on

Plasma Sprayed Hydroxyapatite Coatings
Md. Fahad Hasan et al

- Effect of Spraying Parameters on the

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties
of Micro-Plasma Sprayed Alumina-Titania
Coatings
Liu Gu et al

This content was downloaded from IP address 193.51.85.197 on 13/10/2017 at 19:34

 Plasma Science and Technology, Vol.11, No.6, Dec. 2009

Effect of Spraying Parameters on Deposition Efficiency and Wear

Behavior of Plasma Sprayed Alumina-Titania Composite Coatings
M. VIJAY1 , V. SELVARAJAN1 , S. YUGESWARAN1 ,
P. V. ANANTHAPADMANABHAN2 , K. P. SREEKUMAR2
1
Plasma Physics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Bharathiar University,
Coimbatore 641046, India
2
Laser and Plasma Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Mumbai 400085, India

Abstract The effects of parameters, in the process of plasma-sprayed ceramic coating, upon
the deposition efficiency of alumina-13 wt.% titania composite coatings are reported. The coatings
were prepared by the atmospheric plasma spray process. The plasma torch input power, flow rates
of primary, secondary and carrier gas, powder feed rate and spraying distance were considered as
variables. The results show that the variations in all the selected spraying parameters strongly
affect the deposition efficiency. The micro-hardness, as well as erosive and sliding wear rates of
the coating are also affected by these parameters. Especially the input power strongly affects the
phase and microstructure of the coatings.

Keywords: alumina-titania composite coatings, plasma spraying, deposition efficiency,

wear rate, hardness
PACS: 52.77.Fv, 85.40.Sz, 81.40.Pq

1 Introduction 2 Experimental procedures

Thermal spraying is a technique used in a wide va-
riety of processes and end uses. Atmospheric plasma
spraying (APS) is one of these processes. Among differ-
ent plasma sprayed ceramic and cermet coatings avail-
able, alumina-titania ceramic is one of the materials
widely used in the APS process. Alumina-titania coat-
ings possess excellent properties on wear resistance [1∼4]
and are widely applied in aerospace, textile, chemical,
and engineering industries. However, all the industrial
applications need quality and cost-effective coatings.
Since the quality of the coating depends on a large num-
ber of parameters [5,6] , the optimization of spraying pa-
rameters is necessary to obtain effective coatings to fit
the applications.
Spraying parameters can affect the deposition effi-
ciency, microstructure and other properties of the coat-
ings. In this paper the effect of the following param-
eters on the deposition efficiency (DE) of the atmo-
spheric plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania com-
posite coating is studied. These parameters are a.
torch input power, b. primary gas flow rate, c. sec-
ondary gas flow rates, d. carrier gas flow rate, e. pow-
der feed rate and f. spraying distance. Also, the micro-
hardness, erosive and sliding wear behaviors are studied
as a function of the spray parameters.
2.1 Substrate preparation
Mild steel substrates (AISI 4626) with a composi-
tion of 0.25% C, 0.7% Mn, 0.25% Si, and 0.05% S were
used throughout for coating deposition. The dimen-
sions of the mild steel specimens used for deposition ef-
ficiency were 50 mm× 50 mm× 2 mm; for erosive wear,
50 mm× 20 mm× 2 mm; and for sliding wear, a pin in
both diameter of 12 mm and length of 50 mm. Before
coating, the substrate surfaces were grid blasted using
a grid blasting machine with a micron-sized sand of 75
to 125 at an air pressure of about 50 kPa, at a dis-
tance of about 150 mm. Subsequent to grid blasting,
the samples were cleaned with forced air and acetone.
2.2 Coating preparation
The coatings were prepared by a non-transferred arc
40 kW DC atmospheric plasma spray torch (Ion Arc
technologies, India) under different operating condi-
tions. Alumina-13 wt.% titania was prepared by blend-
ing and fusing (M/S Carborundum Universal Ltd., In-
dia). The feedstock powder properties are listed in Ta-
ble 1. The parameters of the plasma spraying condi-
tions are summarized in Table 2.

Table 1. Properties of powders

Chemical composition (wt%) Particle size (µm) Ture density (×103 kg/m3 ) Tap density (×103 kg/m3 )
Al2 O3 TiO2 SiO2 CaO Fe2 O3 10∼40 4.05 2.2
87.22 12.32 0.23 0.22 0.01
M. VIJAY et al.: Effect of Spraying Parameters on DE and Wear Behavior
Table 2. Plasma spraying parameters the composite specimen and steel plate (EN 31) was di-
rectly obtained from the equipment using a transducer
Items Values
attached to the test equipment and was recorded using
Input power (kW): 25, 30, 35 a computer interface. The steel disc was cleaned and
Primary gas (Ar) flow rate (lpm): 20, 30, 40 polished each time to remove debris or remnants of a
transfer layer, etc. before fixing a new specimen for
Secondary gas (N2 ) flw rate (lpm): 1, 3, 5, 7 the sliding test. After completion of a specified slid-
Powder carrier gas (Ar) flow rate (lpm): 5, 10, 15, 20 ing distance, the test samples were cleaned using a soft
brush to remove the worn particles before weighing the
Powder flow rate (gpm): 5, 10, 15
samples.
Nozzle diameter (mm): 8
Spray distance (mm): 100, 125, 150
2.5 Erosive wear
2.3 Deposition efficiency (DE) A sand blasting machine, shown in Fig. 1, was
used to study the erosive wear behavior of the coat-
The deposition efficiency was determined by calcu- ing materials. The sample with a dimension of
lating the ratio between the weight of the coating and 50 mm× 20 mm× 2 mm was fixed in a plate holder
the weight of the powder fed into the torch within a which could be moved in two ways. The distance be-
given time. tween the blast gun and the sample could be adjusted
Wdeposited
DE= × 100 (for a given time) by rotation along the vertical axis; the impact angle
Winjected could be changed. The erodent sand particle through
The feeding rate was calculated from the amount of the hopper and blast gun was impinged on the sample
powder collected from the powder feeder outlet into the at a preset angle. Air pressure could be adjusted with
torch within a given time. The deposition time was a regulator so as to enable the pressure of the erodent
one minute to determine the deposition efficiency. The to impinge on the sample. The sample was subjected
torch was focused on the centre of the substrate surface. to erosion for a fixed period of time, namely 1 min,
The deposition efficiency of the plasma torch was cal- cleaned with acetone, dried and weighed. The weight
culated for different input powers, primary gas (argon) loss on the test specimen during each exposure was de-
flow rates, secondary gas flow rates (nitrogen), carrier termined.
gas (argon) flow rates, powder feed rates and spray dis-
tances. The powder particles were in the size range of
10 microns to 40 microns.

2.4 Sliding wear

The sliding wear was studied using a pin-on-disk slid-
ing wear machine (TR-20, Ducom, India). The test was
conducted on plasma sprayed cylindrical pins of 12 mm.
These pins were polished using 1200 grit polishing pa-
per. Sliding wear test samples were pressed against the
disc with a specified force of 49.05 N. The number of
rotations of the disc was preset to a sliding distance
Fig.1 Schematic drawing of erosive wear testing sand
of 3.4×103 m with a sliding velocity of 1.884 m/s for a
blasting machine
duration of 30 min and the machine was then allowed
to operate continuously without interruption. The slid-
The dimensionless erosion rate (We ) was then esti-
ing wear test of specimens is conducted against a pol-
mated as the ratio of an average weight loss of the tested
ished stainless steel (EN-31) disc with a diameter of
coating surface overlay and weight of erodent striking
100 mm and a thickness of 8 mm. The specific wear
the surface of the specimen. Measure of erosive wear [9] .
rate is defined as the wear volume normalized by the
normal load and the sliding distance. The following for-
Wl
mula was used to estimate the specific wear rate, Ws of We = ,
Wt
samples [7,8] :
V
Ws = , where Wl is the weight loss of the coating surface and
DL Wt is the total weight of the striking erodent particles.
with V the volume loss, D the sliding distance and L This test was repeated until a steady state value was
the normal load applied on the specimen. The volume obtained. Erosion tests were carried out with three
loss V =m/ρ, with ρ the density of the material and m different impact angles. The erosive wear parameters
is the mass loss. The coefficient of friction (µ) between selected for the study are summarized in Table 3.

667
 Plasma Science and Technology, Vol.11, No.6, Dec. 2009
Table 3. Operation parameters of erosive wear test The X ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the
Items Values alumina-13 wt.% titania coatings performed at the in-
Erodent: silica sand (particle
put power of 25 kW, 30 kW and 35 kW are shown
in Fig. 3, which reveals rutile-titania as the major
size: 90∼120 µm)
phase compared to γ-Al2 O3 and α-Al2 O3 . The X ray
Flow rate of snd : 500 g/min
diffraction of the relative intensity peak ratio between
Impact angle: 30o , 60o and 90o Al2 TiO5 (£), α-Al2 O3 and rutile-TiO2 for the alumina-
Air pressure: 45 kPa 13 wt.% titania coatings performed at the input power
Nozzle diameter: 3 mm of 25 kW, 30 kW and 35 kW, is shown in Fig. 4. The
Distance (between the blast 100 mm presence of both a metastable Al2 TiO5 (£) phase and
gun-and the sample holder the formation of a Al2 TiO5 phase increase while the
torch input power increases. Correspondingly, α-Al2 O3
tends to decrease while an increase in the formation of
3 Results and discussion the Al2 TiO5 phase takes place and also rutile-titania
tends to increase gradually and decrease slightly. The
3.1 Effect of input power Al2 TiO5 phase is formed as a result of the reaction be-
The deposition efficiency as a function of the plasma tween TiO2 and Al2 O3 and the formation depends on
torch input power is shown in Fig. 2. DE (%) pre- the solubility of TiO2 in the Al2 O3 structure and the
sented in Fig. 2 is in good agreement with the expected process temperatures [10] .
values from the in-flight characteristics. In a previous
study [1] , it was suggested that DE (%) in a plasma
spray process depends on the in-flight particle charac-
teristics, especially the percentage of particles (molten
/ semi-molten) with a temperature above the melting
point. At a lower power level the particles are not well
melted. The larger particles are melted partially or not
melted with the unmelted particles bounce back from
the substrate. So the deposition efficiency is very low
at these levels. If the input power increases, the tem-
perature of the plasma plume increases. Consequently
the degree of melting of the particles increases, thereby
the deposition efficiency increases. However beyond a
power of 30 kW, the deposition efficiency begins to de-
crease. At a higher power level of 40 kW, since the tem-
perature is high, there may be a mass loss of relatively
smaller size particles due to evaporation. Concurrently Fig.3 XRD pattern of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.%
at a higher power level, the flow pattern of the plasma titania composite coating
jet is rather turbulent and hence the part of injected
particles are reflected to the outer surface of the plasma
jet due to their inability to enter the plasma core com-
pletely. This results in a lower deposition efficiency at
a higher power level.

Fig.4 Effect of input power on relative intensity of plasma

sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania composite coating

It is well known that the addition of TiO2 to the

Fig.2 Variation of deposition efficiency (%) with plasma Al2 O3 coating is to reduce the melting temperature
torch input power of the oxide, thereby producing less porous and better

668
M. VIJAY et al.: Effect of Spraying Parameters on DE and Wear Behavior
performance coatings than pure Al2 O3 coatings [11,12] .
The decreased melting temperature is due to the fact
that TiO2 has a lower melting temperature (2127 K)
than that of Al2 O3 (2313 K) and lower value of spe-
cific heat of TiO2 relative to alumina [13] . The degree
of melting of the powder particle during plasma spray,
however, also depends on the thermal conductivity of
the particle itself.
Coatings deposited at all power levels showed strong
diffraction peaks of γ-Al2 O3 compared to α-Al2 O3 . The
existence of γ-Al2 O3 clearly indicates that Al2 O3 in
these coatings is due to the rapidly solidifying process.
The formation of metastable γ-Al2 O3 is due to the heat
conditions during the cooling process [14] . The trans-
formation of α-Al2 O3 to γ-Al2 O3 could take place only
when the powder particles are completely molten. On
the other hand, the partially melted α-Al2 O3 particles
can only re-crystallize as α-Al2 O3 due to the presence
of the α-nucleus during cooling. Therefore, the extent
of γ-Al2 O3 present in the coatings can give a measure of
complete melting of the particles. On the other hand,
the presence of α-Al2 O3 gives an indication of the ex-
tent of unmelted or partially melted particles [15,16] .
The differences in the XRD pattern are seen for
coatings prepared at the power of 25 kW, 30 kW and
35 kW. The crystallinity of each phase increases at the
power of 35 kW, leading to a better microstructure of
the coatings. Both the alumina and alumina-titania
systems have a high tendency to generate different
phases. The crystallographic structure changes accord-
ing to the cooling process, deposition techniques and
material spray conditions, etc. The structural changes
and their consequence upon the deposited layer’s prop-
erties were studied in this work.
The scanning electron micrograph (SEM) image of
the feed stock alumina-13 wt.% titania powder is shown
in Fig. 5. The SEM image of the plasma sprayed
alumina-13 wt.% titania coating prepared at the torch Fig.6 SEM image of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.% ti-
input power of 25 kW, 30 kW and 35. kW is shown in tania coating at (a) 25 kW, (b) 30 kW, (c) 35 kW
Fig. 6. It is clearly seen in the figure, the pores and un-
melted or partially melted particles are present in the
coating (Fig. 7). The porosity exists in all coatings.

Fig.7 SEM image of alumina-13 wt.% titania coating at

25 kW

Although the colour of the phases is not distinguished

Fig.5 SEM image of alumina-13 wt.% titania powder in all the coatings, the white regions in the coating are

669

attributed to titania while the grey ones are alumina.
It is seen that the porosity as well as the unmelted par-
ticles decreases with the increasing input power level.
Fig. 8 shows the erosive and sliding wear rates of
the alumina-13 wt.% titania coating at different input
power levels of the plasma torch. The increasing input
power decreases the erosive and sliding wear rate. At
a higher power level, the temperature and velocity of
the in-flight particles are high due to the higher tem-
perature. The in-flight particle temperature and veloc-
ity are the main parameters which affect the coating
structure and properties. A high particle velocity is as-
sociated with good coating performance, in particular
wear resistance and erosion resistance [11] .
Fig.8 Effect of input power on erosive and sliding wear
rate
Fig. 9 depicts the microhardness value of the
alumina-13 wt.% titania coating. In principle, the mi-
crohardness value of alumina-13 wt.% titania coatings
depends on their composition. It is seen (Fig. 9) that an
increase in the input power increases the microhardness
of the coatings. It may be attributed to the formation
of dense coatings with low porosity, better crystallinity
and microstructure.
Fig.9 Effect of input power on micro hardness
670
Plasma Science and Technology, Vol.11, No.6, Dec. 2009
3.2 Effect of primary gas (Ar) flow rate
Fig. 10 shows the influence of the primary (Ar) gas
flow rate on the deposition efficiency of the plasma
sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania composite coating at
different input power levels. The results show that the
deposition efficiency increases initially with an increas-
ing gas flow rate up to a certain flow rate, depending
on the power level. Further, when increasing the gas
flow rate, the deposition efficiency decreases, due to a
higher density of the plasma jet. Generally, a higher gas
flow rate constricts the gas axially and also reduces the
width of the plasma plume radially and increases the
plasma jet density, velocity and temperature [2] . How-
ever at a given power level, an increase in the gas flow
rate decreases the temperature of the plasma, beyond a
particular flow rate when the temperature is decreased,
melting is not complete and hence the deposition effi-
ciency is affected to decrease. Also in a dense plasma
jet, most of the smaller size particles travel away from
the plasma core due to their inability to penetrate the
plasma core. On the other hand, a higher velocity of
the plasma jet reduces the residence time of the in-flight
particles and also accelerates the particles. This causes
lower deposition efficiency at higher gas flow rates.
Fig.10 Effect of primary gas (argon) flow rate on deposi-
tion efficiency (%) of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.% tita-
nia composite coating at different input torch power levels
3.3 Effect of secondary (N2 ) gas flow
rate
Fig. 11 shows the effect of the secondary (N2 ) gas
flow rate on the deposition efficiency of the coatings un-
der preset spray conditions. The deposition efficiency
increases with the increasing flow rate up to 5 lpm and
then decreases from 49% to 46% with the flow rate
increasing up to 7 lpm. Generally, addition of small
amounts of diatomic gases increases the enthalpy, av-
erage temperature and length of the plasma jet, which
in turn increase the melting of in-flight particles. So
increasing the N2 flow rate will increase the deposition
M. VIJAY et al.: Effect of Spraying Parameters on DE and Wear Behavior
efficiency. At the same time, larger amounts of N2 pro-
duce a turbulent flow and cool down the plasma jet due
to an insufficient input power. So the decrease in the
deposition efficiency is also possible with a larger N2
flow rate.
Fig.11 Effect of secondary gas (nitrogen) flow rate on de-
position efficiency (%) of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.%
titania composite coating
Fig. 12 shows the effect of the secondary (N2 ) gas
flow rate on the erosive and sliding wear rate of the
alumina-13 wt.% titania coating. The erosive and slid-
ing wear rate decreases with the increase in the sec-
ondary (N2 ) gas flow rate up to 4 lpm and then in-
creases beyond that. The decrease in the erosive and
sliding wear rates is due to an increase of enthalpy, av-
erage temperature and length of the plasma jet and the
increase is due to the turbulent flow and cooling of the
plasma jet due to an insufficient input power.
Fig.12 Effect of secondary gas (nitrogen) flow rate on ero-
sive & sliding wear rate
Fig. 13 shows the microhardness value of the
alumina-13 wt.% titania coating as a function of the sec-
ondary (N2 ) gas flow rate. The microhardness increases
up to the flow rate of 4.22 lpm and then decreases for
further increases in the flow rate. The increase in the
Fig.13 Effect of secondary gas (nitrogen) flow rate on mi-
crohardness
microhardness value is due to an increase of enthalpy,
plasma temperature and length of the plasma jet, which
provides a longer residence time for particles, which ac-
counts for the high particle temperature and higher ve-
locity with lower resulting porosity. The decrease in
the microhardness value is due to the turbulent flow
and cooling down of the plasma jet with an insufficient
input power, which accounts for the low particle tem-
perature and hence less melting of particles resulting in
more porosity.
3.4 Effect of carrier gas flow rate
Fig. 14 shows the effect of the carrier gas flow rate on
the deposition efficiency of the plasma sprayed alumina-
13 wt.% titania composite coating in preset spray con-
ditions. The powder is carried away from the powder
feeder by the carrier gas and is fed into the plasma jet
through a copper tube having a powder injector diam-
eter of about 3 mm. The carrier gas flow rate affects
the particle trajectories and thus the particle velocity
and temperature histories. It is found that the particle
spray pattern is greatly influenced by the carrier gas
flow rate, while the particle temperature and velocity
Fig.14 Effect of carrier gas (argon) flow rate on deposition
efficiency (%) of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania
composite coating
671
 Plasma Science and Technology, Vol.11, No.6, Dec. 2009
are not sensitive to it. As indicated by the results, the
deposition efficiency increases with the increasing gas
flow rate from 5 lpm to 10 lpm. At lower carrier gas
flow rates, the particles traverse only on the outer sur-
face of the plasma jet due to lower penetration of the
particles into the plasma jet. In the case of high carrier
gas flow rates, the particles travel across the plasma
core at a higher velocity and cause a low in-flight par-
ticle residence time which reduces the melting fraction
of the in-flight particles. Therefore the deposition effi-
ciency decreases with higher carrier gas flow rates.

3.5 Effect of power feed rate

Fig. 15 shows that the deposition efficiency remains
the same for a short range and then decreases with a
higher feed rate. With the injection of particles, the
temperature of the plasma jet will decrease due to the
energy transferred to the cold particles. A higher feed
rate decreases the degree of melting and in-flight ve-
locity due to inter-collisions. Hence the deposition ef-
ficiency decreases with an increasing powder feed rate.
In the present case maximum deposition efficiency was
obtained at a 10 gpm alumina-13 wt.% titania powder
feed rate.
Fig.16 Effect of spray distance on deposition efficiency
(%) of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania composite
coating
hence the coating efficiency will decrease. Also the re-
sultant microstructure of the coating is highly porous
with poor cohesion.
Fig. 17 shows the erosive and sliding wear rate of
the alumina-13 wt% titania coating as a function of the
spraying distance. It is seen that the erosive and slid-
ing wear rates are increased with an increasing spray
distance. This is due to the increase in solidification
which results in a poor coating.

Fig.15 Effect of powder feed rate on deposition efficiency

(%) of plasma sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania composite
coating
3.6 Effect of spraying distance
Fig. 16 shows the variation in the deposition effi-
ciency with spraying distance. The deposition efficiency
is strongly influenced by the spray distance. It de-
creases from 49% to 22% with the spraying distance
increasing from 100 mm to 150 mm. The molten parti-
cles leave from the plasma jet, and are quickly solidified
due to a rapid quenching rate. So increasing the spray
distance increases the solidification. If the particles are
solidified before their impact on the substrate surface,
they may bounce away without forming the coating,
Fig.17 Effect of spraying distance on erosive and sliding
wear rate
The lower the porosity, the higher the microhardness.
Porosity tends to reduce the effective area supporting
the load and is detrimental to strength. When porosity
or an equivalent defect is present in a sample, the load
bearing area is reduced. It can be safely assumed that
the defective region will yield first, thereby concentrat-
ing the strain. However, voids create a multiaxial stress
state and cause a local strain concentration in their
vicinity [12] . It is clear from Fig. 18 that an increase in
the spray distance decreases the microhardness of the
coatings.

672
M. VIJAY et al.: Effect of Spraying Parameters on DE and Wear Behavior
Fig.18 Effect of spraying distance on microhardness
4 Conclusion
The deposition efficiency of the atmospheric plasma
sprayed alumina-13 wt.% titania composite coating has
been calculated with different operating conditions and
the results discussed. All the results show that the
spray parameters strongly influence the deposition ef-
ficiency. Microhardness, erosive and sliding wear prop-
erties of the coatings are strongly affected by the spray
parameters. For any applications, optimum values of
spray parameters must be chosen to achieve a maxi-
mum deposition efficiency.
Acknowledgements
The present study was supported by a grant from
The Department of Science and Technology (DST),
Government of India. Authors would like to thank
Dr. P. SARAVANAN, DMRL, Hyderabad for his help
in coating characterization. The authors (M. VIJAY &
S. YUGESWARAN) acknowledge the Junior Research
Fellowship awarded by DST, Government of India.
References
1 Tucker R C. 1998, Surface Engineering. ASM Met-
als Hand Book. American Society for Metals Interna-
tional, Ohio, Materials Park
2 Pawlowski L. 1995, The Science and Engineering of
Thermal Spray Coatings. John Wiley & Sons, Eng-
land
3 Ustel F, Soykan S, Celik E, et al. 1995, J. Metallurgy,
97: 31
4 Jordan E.H, Gell M, Sohn Y H, et al. 2001, Mater. Sci.
Eng. A, 301: 80
5 Shaw L, Goberman D, Gell M, et al. 2000, Surf. Coat.
Technol., 130: 1
6 Saravanan P, Selvarajan V, Srivastava M P, et al. 2000,
British Ceramic Transactions, 99: 241
7 Hashmi S A R, Dwivedi U K, Navin Chand. 2007,
Wear, 262: 1426
8 Saravanan P, Selvarajan V, Joshi S V, et al. 2001, J.
Phy. D: Appl. Phy., 34: 131
9 Suchanek J, Smrkovsky J, Blaskovic P, et al. 1999,
Wear, 233: 229
10 Safai S, Herman H. 1981, In Treatise on Materials Sci-
ence and Technology. Academic press, New York
11 Li C J, Ohmori A. 1996, Surf. Coat. Technol., 82: 254
12 Caceres C H, Selling B I. 1996, Mater. Sci. Eng., A,
220: 109
13 Ananthapadmanabhan P V, Thiyagarajan T K,
Sreekumar K P, et al. 2003, Surf. Coat. Technol., 168:
231
14 Meidong Wang, Shaw Leon L. 2007, Surf. Coat. Tech-
nol., 202: 34
15 McPherson R. 1981, Thin Solid Films, 83: 297
16 Ramachandran K, Selvarajan V, Anathapadmanab-
han P V, et al. 1997, Mater. Manuf. Process, 12: 863
(Manuscript received 12 February 2009)
(Manuscript accepted 27 April 2009)
E-mail address of corresponding author
V. SELVARAJAN: vijppl@rediffmail.com
673