High-temperature erosion is a detrimental phenomenon in industries where particle flow exists, in which the search for new materials and mixes to increase the lifespan of mechanical components exposed to erosion is crucial. The present work studied the erosion resistance of two coatings at 25 °C (RT) and 900 °C in a sandblast-type rig. The coatings were fabricated with cermet-type powders: (C1) commercial Cr₃C₂-NiCr and (C2) commercial Cr₃C₂-NiCr mixed with a laboratory-conditioned powder consisting of NiCrAlY (linking matrix) and SiC (ceramic phase). Both coatings were applied on an Incoloy 330 substrate using an HVOF thermal spray process. The C2 coating was 11% harder than C1 but had a 62.2% decrement in its K_IC value. The erosion test results at RT and 900 °C showed better erosion resistance on C1 than C2 at both testing temperatures and the three impact angles (30°, 60°, and 90°); this was attributed to the minor K_IC induced by SiC hard particles and the bigger propagation of inter-splat and trans-splat cracks in C2. The erosion mechanisms at RT and 900 °C were similar, but at high temperature, the apparent size of plastic deformation (micro-cutting, grooves, and craters) increased due to an increase in the matrix ductility. Maximum penetration depth always occurred at a 60° impact angle.

Wear is a major issue in industry, particularly with metal components. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate methods that offer increased resistance to this phenomenon. In this research, three coating systems (pure WC-CoCr and WC-CoCr/NiCrFeSiBC+Mo, 88:12 and 83:17 wt.%) were thermally sprayed on an AISI 1018 steel substrate through the High-Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) process. The coatings were characterized using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) equipped with the energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). An analysis of the wear rate for ball-on-flat linear reciprocating sliding tribological tests for the coatings was also carried out. The coating microstructure presents well-dispersed NiCrFeSiBC splats. The WC-CoCr/NiCrFeSiBC+Mo, 88:12, system has the highest wear resistance, decreasing by 30.2% at high loads compared to commercial WC-CoCr CERMETs, and also exhibits the highest fracture toughness. Analysis of wear tracks shows that the material removal at all charges occurred mainly by an abrasive wear mechanism.