Development of Tribological Coatings for Aerospace and Missile Applications

J.K.N. Murthy; B. Venkataraman; Gokul Lakshmi; M. Ramakrishna

doi:10.14429/dsj.73.18718

J.K.N. Murthy DRDO-Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), Kanchanbagh PO, Hyderabad - 500 058, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5582-1354
B. Venkataraman Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3481-964X
Gokul Lakshmi DRDO-Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), Kanchanbagh PO, Hyderabad - 500 058, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9442-241X
M. Ramakrishna DRDO-Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad - 500 058, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4064-4279

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.73.18718

Keywords: Tribology, Carbide coatings, Abradable, Carbon based composite, Thermal spray

Abstract

Tribological coatings play a key role in enhancing the performance and service life of engineering systems and components. Over the years, DMRL has worked extensively in studying various aspects of tribological coatings used in aerospace and missile propulsion systems where harsh and hostile environments prevail. The coatings have been deposited mostly by thermal spray processes for these applications. The studies have been done to understand the relationship between microstructure, mechanical properties and tribological behaviour of coatings. In this work, a cermet coating based on carbide to resist wear and an abradable coating based on cobalt alloy to control clearance between the blade tip and shroud for gas turbine aeroengine application and a low friction coating developed for a missile application will be discussed.