Synthesis of Tribologically Favorable

Coatings for Hot Extrusion Tools by

Suspension Plasma Spraying
M.Erne, D.Kolar, C.Hbsch,
M.Mhwald & Fr.-W.Bach

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

ISSN 1059-9630
J Therm Spray Tech
DOI 10.1007/s11666-012-9765-y

1 23

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JTTEE5
DOI: 10.1007/s11666-012-9765-y
1059-9630/$19.00  ASM International

M. Erne, D. Kolar, C. Hubsch, M. Mohwald, and Fr.-W. Bach

(Submitted September 16, 2011; in revised form February 2, 2012)
Up to now, no coating systems have been marketed in the field of direct hot extrusion, which provide
both surface protection of the parts in contact with the billet (i.e., container and die) as well as a
significant reduction of the frictional losses induced by the billet passing over the container walls. To
dispense with the use of lubricants and to enhance the usable forming capacity and therefore the
efficiency of the process, different oxide ceramics were prepared in one suspension and plasma sprayed
to produce coatings. The aim was to reach a sufficient level of feedstock mixing to obtain deterministic
solid solutions of the oxide phases in coatings resulting in a reduction of their coefficient of friction under
dry sliding conditions. To achieve this objective, the high specific surface area of nanosized feedstock
with primary particle sizes below 100 nm was used. By means of x-ray diffraction it could be proven, that
the desired phases could be synthesized to varying ratios regarding the different coating systems considered here. Besides the experimental work, the fundamentals of the mixing process of different oxides
are discussed with regard to the crystallographic aspects.

Keywords

coefficient of friction, oxides, solid lubricants,

suspension spraying, wear resistant coatings, wear
testing, x-ray diffraction (XRD)

1. Introduction
Thermal sprayed coatings are not commonly used in
the field of massive forming owing to the high demands
concerning the cohesion and adhesion of tool coatings.
These requirements concerning the cohesion and adhesion
arise because of the adhesive wear induced by sticking of
the flowing material at elevated operating temperatures
and high relative velocities between the work piece and
tooling resulting in high tensile and shear stresses. In the
field of hot extrusion for example, alumina and zirconia
coatings have been deposited on extrusion tools by conventional thermal spray and exhibit a tendency to
delaminate (Ref 1).
This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the
2011 International Thermal Spray Conference and has been
expanded from the original presentation. It is simultaneously
published in Thermal Spray 2011: Proceedings of the
International Thermal Spray Conference, Hamburg, Germany,
September 27-29, 2011, Basil R. Marple, Arvind Agarwal,
Margaret M. Hyland, Yuk-Chiu Lau, Chang-Jiu Li, Rogerio S.
Lima, and Andre McDonald, Ed., ASM International, Materials
Park, OH, 2011.
M. Erne, D. Kolar, C. Hubsch, M. Mohwald, and Fr.-W. Bach,
Institute of Materials Science, Leibniz University of Hanover, An
der Universitaet 2, 30823 Garbsen, Germany. Contact e-mail:
erne@iw.uni-hannover.de.

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

For this reason, a challenge exists to establish coatings

which reduce both the wear of tools and frictional losses in
the processes. For example, in the case of direct hot
extrusion, up to 60% of the forming force has to be
applied to counterbalance frictional losses (Ref 2) (Fig. 1).
Those losses are induced by the contact of the billet (a) as
it is pressed by the extrusion stem (b) over the dummy
block (c) through the container carrying the billet (d) and
the extrusion die (e).
To help reduce such losses, different lubricants and
material separating agents are used, however, these present disadvantages of higher degrees of reworking of the
semifinished extruded product and of the lubricating
substances limited thermal stability. To overcome these
disadvantages, the feasibility of using specific oxide ceramic phases based on titania was tested. These demonstrate
a reduction of their frictional coefficients subject to tribological processes at elevated temperatures. The coating
of the container liners surface was chosen for this test
since the area of the surface in contact with the billet is
high, thereby providing a large potential for lowering the
frictional losses by using appropriate low-friction coatings.
On the other hand, the surface pressure and the relative
velocity of the flowing billet material are much lower
compared to the conditions on the surface of the die
cavities. Bearing in mind that, in the case of direct
extrusion, the highest occurring frictional force is identical
to the maximum surface contact force on the container
wall, a peak frictional force of 10 N/mm2 can be estimated
for extruding pure aluminum. Therefore, it should be
feasible to fulfill the demands of the application with
respect to the shear strength and adhesion provided by
thermal spray coatings. Besides the adequate process
conditions, the container liners surface provides a

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Synthesis of Tribologically Favorable

Coatings for Hot Extrusion Tools
by Suspension Plasma Spraying

Peer-Reviewed

Author's personal copy

Fig. 1 Sectional view of the direct hot extrusion process

( Aluminium Laufen AG, Liesberg/Switzerland)

considerably larger diameter compared to the die cavities

thus making the coating process feasible by employing an
internal plasma spray gun. To synthesize the desired
phases, different oxide feedstocks were mixed with titania
into one suspension and applied using suspension plasma
spraying.

2. Crystallographic Aspects
Different non-stoichiometric phases are known in the
titanium-oxygen system, which exhibit the ability to be
deformed under mechanical stress due to the shearing of
crystal lattice planes. These phases show a reduction of the
frictional coefficient in dry sliding conditions at elevated
temperatures of several 100 C. The beneficial effect was
linked to the shearing processes being temperature
induced (Ref 3); the fundamental mechanisms of the
shearing processes are discussed elsewhere (Ref 4). As the
phases are not expected to be thermodynamically stable
(for a discussion of redistribution effects of titanium and
oxygen, see Ref 5), another approach was envisaged for
the present work: namely, by adding a second cation
besides Ti4+, phases can be obtained that are homologues
of the non-stoichiometric titanium oxides. These so-called
Andersson-phases were first described for the system
Ti-Cr-O (Ref 6) showing a composition of Tin 2Cr2O2n 1.
As chromium exhibits a high vapor pressure with rising
temperature and may therefore tend to evaporate out of
the lattice, the homovalent substitution of the Ti4+-cation
in the rutile base lattice was targeted. Besides Cr3+-cation,
according to the rules stated by V. M. Goldschmidt (Ref 7),
Ni3+, Co3+ and Zr4+ also appear suitable for the substitution process when considering the ionic radii and coordination given in Ref 8. The goal is, on the one hand, to
obtain phases with a similar composition compared to the
Andersson-type phases and, on the other, sufficient stability in temperature ranges up to 800 C which are

Fig. 2 Structures of Co and Ti oxide (top) and of the mixed

solid solution oxide (bottom)

commonly used for hot extrusion of aluminum and copper

based alloys.
The assumption that the applicability of substitution
processes may lead to the formation of solid solutions
possessing the desired stoichiometry can be confirmed by
means of the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database
(ICSD) provided by the US-American National Institute
of Standards and Technology together with Fachinformationszentrum (FIZ) Karlsruhe, Germany. In Fig. 2 for
example, the structures of the cubic Co(II)-oxide and that
of tetragonal rutile (i.e. Ti(IV)-oxide) are shown top,
where the oxygen is represented by the larger balls. From
the structure, it can be inferred that both cations have
similar radii, which isbesides the valence and the coordination by the surrounding ionsthe key requirement
for the dissolution of the oxides. When the two oxides are
mixed, a structure of lower symmetry (orthorhombic) is
formed with a composition of Co2Ti4O10. The difference,
compared to the targeted composition of Co2Ti4O11 for
n = 6, is due to the fact that the divalent cobalt is incorporated into the structure instead of the trivalent ion. The
cobalt-titanium-oxide with trivalent Co-ions, as well as
other possible candidates that could form a crystallographic solid solution of rutile with the named oxides, are
not yet refined. Without the feasibility of refining the
structures, a Rietveld analysis is not possible in terms of a
full quantitative phase analyses of the sprayed coatings.

3. Experimental
3.1 Formulation and Handling of Suspensions
The spraying experiments were performed using the
Triplex-II gun (Sulzer Metco AG, Wohlen/Switzerland).
In the case of the Triplex-II gun, the control parameters
(see Table 1) were held constant during the experiments

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

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Amperage
500 A

Plasma
gas/secondary
gas flow
40 NLPM Ar/10
NLPM He

Spraying
distance

Injection relative
angle and place

Suspension
mass flow

110 mm

against plasma
exiting at gun nozzle

60 g/min equal to
6 g/min feedstock

Injection pressures
0.1 MPa feeding gas and
0.1 MPa atomizing
gas pressure

Gun traverse
speed
1.0 m/s

Fig. 3 Diagram of the suspension feeder design

due to the importance of properly injecting the suspension

into the plasma free jet (for a detailed discussion see;
Ref 9). One single two-phase injector with an outlet
diameter of 0.40 mm was attached to the gun at an angle of
110 relative to the marking of the gun bodys housing.
For the outer phase of the suspensions, water was used with
an addition of 30% ethanol to ensure the evaporation of
insufficiently injected droplets. To assist the melting of the
feedstock, boric acid was added to the suspension. By
decomposing to the boron oxide in the plasma, this supplies a flux melting agent. For the intermixture of titania
and chromia, powders were prepared in one suspension
having a given median crystallite size of 100 nm (supplied
by American Elements, Los Angeles/USA). However, for
the coatings feedstock containing Co2O3 and Ni2O3, grain
sizes of 30 to 60 nm (supplied by IoLiTec Ionic Liquids
Technologies GmbH, Heilbronn/Germany) were used. As
substrates, different steels (structural steel SJ235R and
Thermax, an austenitic high-temperature resistant
CrNiMnSi-alloyed steel) were coated. The coatings on the
former and the latter were used for x-ray analysis and for
pin-on-disk tribometer experiments, respectively. Substrate preparation was performed throughout the coating
experiments using grit-blasting with corundum EKF 100
(equivalent to Mesh 100 to 120) at 0.3 MPa pressure and
cleaning in an ethanol ultrasonic bath.
For handling the suspensions, a mass flow controlled
feeder was developed (Fig. 3). Valves near the gun control
the feed of the suspension and the clear water to avoid
blockages in the injectors. A hopper having a volume of
3 L serves to both condition the suspension and to feed it
to the plasma spraying process. In a first step, the feedstock
is sieved into the fluid with the aid of a pneumatically

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

driven vibrator to ensure a low material input rate.

Together with magnetic stirring of the outer phase, the
objective is to ensure a sufficient wetting of the feedstock
and to avoid the formation of large particle aggregates at
the beginning of the dispersion process. When the feedstock is completely dispersed, the suspension is pumped in
a closed loop through a vessel containing an ultrasonic
sonotrode. Using ultrasonic stimulation (1200 W maximum power, frequency = 35 kHz) the feedstock particles
are deagglomerated. To obtain good stability preventing
flocculation and sedimentation, the suspension can be
titrated with primary acidic agents to pH ranges within
which the zeta potentials of the oxide ceramics are
expected to reach a maximum. The variation of the pH
values is controlled by a computer-aided pH meter. In the
case of using boric acid to both provide a flux melting
agent as well as an acidic species, the pH value is stabilized
in the region at 5.5.

3.2 Coating Characterisation

The sprayed coatings were analysed by means of x-ray
diffraction (PW1830/40, Philips/Almelo, The Netherlands)
using a copper anode with a graphite monochromator to
deflect noise radiation induced by the primary incident
radiation in the steel substrate by x-ray fluorescence. A
Theta-2Theta setup was used with a step width of 0.2 and
a counting time of 5 s per step.
Following this, tribological tests were performed using
two different setups. Preliminary tests of Andersson type
coatings running against a steel ball (material number
1.3505, 5 mm diameter, 5 N loading force, 0.1 m/s relative
speed and 10 mm friction radius, 500 m total sliding

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Table 1 Spraying parameters

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Table 2 Phase contents of the three investigated coating systems obtained by semi-quantitative analysis
Phase contents, at.%
Sample
TiO2xNi2O3
TiO2xCo2O3
TiO2xCr2O3

Ti-oxides

Ni, Co-oxides, Cr

Ti-(Ni,Co,Cr)-oxides

Borates

Traces

55
39
13

7
0
10

26
29
75

10
33
0

2% Ni

2% Cr2O3

Table 3 Al- and Cu-based alloys for tribological testing

and applied temperatures in the hot extrusion process

Alloy
AlCu4PbMgMn (3.1645)
AlZn5.6MgCu (3.4365)
CuZn39Pb3 (2.0401)
CuSn12 (2.1052)
CuCr1Zr (2.1293)

Billlet
temperature,
C (Ref 1, 2)

Container
temperature,
C (Ref 1, 2)

350-420
420-430
650-750
600-650
930-980

360
400

distance) were performed at the Surface Engineering

Institute (IOT) of the RWTH Aachen University (Aachen, Germany) using a High Temperature Tribometer
(CSM Instruments SA, Peseux/Switzerland). Subsequent
tests were conducted using a pin-on-disk setup (TRM
5000, Wazau Mess- und Pruefsysteme GmbH, Berlin/
Germany) with different aluminum and copper based
wrought alloys which are typical for extrusion applications
(see Table 2). The conditions were chosen with regard to
the conditions in hot extrusion. For this reason, the relative velocity was set to 3 mm/s, which is identical to the
typically applied speed of the stem when extruding light
metal alloys. The pin was heated to the temperature typically applied to the billet and the coating was heated to
the process temperature of regions of the container wall
(see Table 3). A lower loading force of 5 N was applied to
avoid bending the pin when exceeding its materials critical shear stress under application orientated conditions. In
this case, the friction radius was 18 mm. The tests were
terminated after 50 rotations. As samples, one APS ZrO2Y2O3 coating and one SPS rutile coating for referencing
purposes as well as the SPS Andersson-type coatings were
tested. All counterparts (samples and pins) were dry
ground and polished by hand to P 4000 (equivalent to Grit
1200) using a turning lathe (1200 rpm). The average
roughness Ra obtained was below 0.1 lm to avoid any
disturbing effects of the surface finish on the measurement
of the frictional coefficient of the sample pairings.

4. Results
4.1 Coatings Microstructure
In Fig. 4, the microstructures of one titania-chromia
(left sectional image a) and a titania-cobalt oxide coating
(right sectional image b) are shown. The cross-sectional
views were taken using a confocal scanning laser microscope. The coatings are approximately 100 lm thick and

show homogeneous microstructures which are typically

formed in the case of suspension plasma spraying. The
coatings are dense with only low contents of small pores.

4.2 Phase Analysis

The patterns of the x-ray diffraction measurements of
the Andersson type coatings are plotted in Fig. 5 with an
offset of 500 counts between the samples. The patterns
were examined with regard to the presence of unmelted or
recrystallized feedstock, the possible solutions as well as
the reduced oxides and reaction products of the feedstock
with the flux melting agent. Owing to the marginal coating
thickness of approximately 100 lm or less, the influence of
the substrate is recorded in the patterns. Since the
reflectance of ferrite is considerably higher than that of
the other phases present in the coatings, its peaks have the
highest intensity (see the peaks at approximately 45 and
75 2h). Since no structural data is available for the targeted solid solutions, the reference intensity ratio (RIR)
stated in the ICDD PDF4 database entries were used to
perform semi-quantitative analyses. As no RIRs are given
for the solid solutions in the powder diffraction files, values of phases were assumed which have nearly identical
stoichiometry. The fractions of ferrite were deducted and
the adjusted phase contents of the coatings are given in
Table 2.
In the case of the coatings containing Ni and Co, significant amounts of Ti(IV)-oxides were measured, of
which approximately one third is anatase. As stated in
Ref 10, in the case of rutile feedstock, the phase content of
anatase, especially in suspension sprayed coatings, can be
explained by a slow cooling due to re-solidification of
molten droplets in the process; this contrasts to the formation of rapidly quenched rutile on the substrate. Taking
this explanation into consideration, another possibility
might be the influence of the elevated substrate temperatures in the SPS process leading to a slower cooling of
molten titania particles after their impingement on the
substrate. To distinguish both possible mechanisms, further investigations will be conducted considering the
thermodynamics of the phase changes of both titania
species. In the case that the anatase content correlates well
with the content of re-solidified particles in the coating,
the anatase-to-rutile ratio can be used to optimize the
injection and spraying parameters.
For coatings containing nickel, about 7% of Ni(II)oxide was found, whereas in titania-cobalt-oxide systems
no remnants of the Co-feedstock was detected. The
employed trivalent oxides of both cations decompose to
the divalent oxide at temperatures above approximately

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

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Fig. 4 Microstructures of a titania-chromia (left sectional image a) and a titania-cobalt oxide coating (right sectional image b)

Fig. 5 Diffraction patterns of three suspension sprayed coating

systems

600 C in the case of the Ni-oxide (Ref 11) and 1910 C

for the Co2O3 (Ref 12). Alternatively, the contents of the
borates formed by the reactions of boron oxide with the
feedstock oxides is three times higher for the Co-based
system compared to the titania-nickel oxide coating. Since
the absolute value of the enthalpy of the cobalt-borates
formation is higher than that of the Ni-borate (Ref 13, 14),
the Co-oxide feedstock is diluted in the boron oxide to a
much higher extent compared to the Ni-containing system,
and no remaining Co2O3 is embedded in the coating. In
contrast to this, the contents of Ni-borates are small in the
titania-Ni-oxide coating, and the remnants of the Ni(II)oxide are recorded. The phase contents of the targeted
solid solutions are below 30% for both coating systems.
Compared to the coatings containing Ni and Co, the
mixing of titania with chromia leads to different phase
compositions. Due to the marginal miscibility of chromia
with boron oxide (Ref 15), no borates and only small

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

amounts of the feedstock powders are found. The

Andersson-phases with the previously mentioned stoichiometry of Tin 2Cr2O2n 1 amount to three quarters of the
coatings total composition. For this reason, it can be
concluded that the degree of feedstock mixing is significantly higher for the titania-chromia system. It cannot be
verified to what extent the boron oxide supports the
mixing process of both oxide ceramics without chemical
reactions with respect to the feedstock.
Furthermore, with approximately 10%, significant
amounts of chromium are present in the coatings formed
by the reduction of the chromia feedstock. This effect is
only detected when spraying suspensions containing both
chromia and titania. This result is probably due to the
large gap between the absolute values of the Gibbs free
energy of the two oxides, which amounts to approximately
160 MJ/mol at the melting point of titania (calculated for
standard conditions using FactSAGE thermodynamical
software suite). Hence, the chromia is reduced in the
presence of titania. By means of visible spectroscopy,
protons were found which supposedly originate from the
vaporization of the outer phase water of the suspension.
However, no ions of oxygen were detected. Together with
the laminar flow of the plasma jet of the Triplex-II gun,
which results in marginal entrainment of surrounding air,
the conditions are apparently satisfied for the reduction of
the chromia to chromium.

4.3 Tribological Testing of Andersson

Type Coatings
Since the contents of the titanias solid solutions with
another oxide were the highest for the case for the titaniachromia system, preliminary tribological tests for recording the coefficient of friction (COF), as a function of the
temperature of operation, were conducted with coatings of
these Andersson type phases using a ball-on-disk configuration. To avoid unwanted effects, the coatings for the
tribological tests were sprayed without any addition of
dispersion agents. The coefficient of friction was recorded
in three runs on different samples at room temperature,
600 and 800 C. A significant drop could be recorded in

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the COF from nearly 0.7 at room temperature to below 0.1
when running the pairing at 600 C. Besides the desired
tribological behavior of the coatings, the softening of the
steel ball surely affects the COF in a positive manner
(see the debris of the ball on the coating in the sectional
image c in Fig. 6). However, this is required in the case of
hot extrusion as the billet is extruded under loading conditions which result in exceeding its yield stress. When
raising the temperature to 800 C, the COF rises to values
of approximately 0.2; presumably due to the scaling of the
steel ball resulting in the formation of disadvantageous
iron oxides. These stick to both the coating surface as well
as the counterpart (see pictures e and f of Fig. 6).
To comparatively test the Andersson type coatings
against the alloys being extruded in the temperature range
under consideration, the pin-on-disk setup was chosen
described in section 3.2. To obtain the different temperature ranges for the sprayed coating (i.e. container temperature range) and the pins (i.e. billet temperature), six
infrared emitting halogen lamps each of 150 Watts were
mounted on the tribometer. By adjusting the focal points
of the lamps, the different temperature ranges of pin and
coating can be obtained over short periods of a few minutes. Since no temperature ranges for the container could
be found for extruding the Cu-based alloys, temperatures
of 100-200 C below the billet temperatures were assumed.
The temperatures were measured by thermocouples and
controlled by the wattage applied to the lamps by the
power supply.
For comparison purposes, different alloys were tested
against a ZrO2 coating (APS sprayed yttria-stabilized

thermal barrier coating) owing to its application for hot

extrusion tools (Ref 1), and one TiO2 coating (SPS
sprayed, rutile feedstock) to gather information on the
behavior of the base oxide materials. The tests were performed at room temperature and within the temperature
ranges given in Table 2. In Fig. 7, the COF of the
uncoated specimen and the TBC coating is plotted against
the sliding distance for two copper based alloys. To better
visualize the trends, the values were plotted in eight
intervals where the bars represent the error range for a
given confidence interval of 95%.
The values of the COF of the TBC sample range
between 0.30 and 0.65. When running the pairing at high
temperatures, the recorded values are higher compared to
room temperature and the COF is lower for both temperature ranges when running the CuCr1Zr against the
TBC compared to the ZnPb-alloyed pin. To further
investigate such effects originating from the chemistry of

Fig. 7 COF between an uncoated specimen (Thermax) and a

TBC coating on Cu-based alloys at room (RT) and within the
extrusion temperature range (HT)

Fig. 6 Top views of the resulting scar tracks and the corresponding friction surfaces of the counterparts from RT (top) to
800 C (bottom)

Fig. 8 COF of different pairings of TiO2 (rutile) and thermal

barrier coating on 2.0401, 2.1052, and 3.1645

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Fig. 9 COF of different pairings of TiO2 (rutile) and thermal

barrier coating on 2.1052, 3.1645, and 3.4365

example, the COF of 3.1645 at temperatures of approximately 400 C is the highest of all pairings, demonstrating
intense stick-slip; in the case of the TBC, the coefficient of
friction is considerably lower with values of 0.4 or less. For
the high tendency towards adhesion of the aluminum
based alloy compared to the rutile coating, two mechanisms can be considered. As stated in Ref 16, temperature
induced reactions of the counterpart material with the
oxide ceramic can lead to a change of the wetting behavior
of the oxide ceramic by metal melts. Besides estimating
that this effect should be negligible in temperature ranges
below the alloys melting range, the absolute value of
titanias Gibbs free energy is significantly higher in comparison to that of alumina or copper oxide under standard
conditions, and reactions between the alloys and the titania coating probably do not occur. However, remembering
that the rutile lattice tends to release oxygen from its
surface at elevated temperatures which results in the formation of non-stoichiometric oxides (Ref 3), the adhesion
is possibly the result of an interaction of the alloying base
metal with titanium cations on the surface of the coating.
The good intermiscibility of titanium with both aluminum
and copper would then result in a high tendency towards
adhesion effects making rutile coatings unsuitable for the
targeted operation.
After these preliminary tests, three SPS sprayed Andersson type coating systems were tested against the alloys
2.1052, 3.1645, and 3.4365 (see Fig. 9). In the case of the
aluminum based alloys, the COF is higher when running
the specimens at high temperature but a significantly different behavior exists. In the case of the Cu4PbMgMn

Fig. 10 Laser optical image micrograph of debris from the copper alloy 2.1052 on an Andersson type coating

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology

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pairing different alloyed materials with oxide ceramic

coatings incorporating distinct cations, the TBC was tested
as well as a TiO2 coating, which is the base material for the
Andersson type coatings. The coefficient of friction of
pairings of the coatings against 2.0401, 2.1052 and 3.1645
alloys (see Table 3 for composition) is shown in Fig. 8.
With the exception of pairing TBC with 2.0401, the
COF is again higher compared to the experiments at room
temperature when considering the high temperature ranges. Furthermore, the trend of higher COFs for the rutile
coating compared to the TBC is clearly apparent. For

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(3.1645), the coefficient of friction is clearly higher, in the
range of 0.5 to 0.6, compared to 0.1 at room temperature,
whereas the COF of Zn5.6MgCu (3.4365) does not differ
significantly between the two temperature ranges. On the
other hand, when testing the tin bronze (2.1052), the COF
reaches high values at room temperature, in the range of
0.6-0.7, but drops considerably to values of approximately
0.3 near extrusion temperatures. The differences in the
results concerning the different base metals and those of
the alloying elements have not hitherto been investigated
in detail. Investigations of the wear tracks (for a detailed
micrograph see Fig. 10) and the abraded pins showed
different wear behaviors with respect to the different
alloys and in correlation to the applied temperature ranges. Further work will be conducted concerning the basic
conditions of the tribological testing setup and, on one
hand, the correlation of the tribological behavior with the
alloys and, on the other, the chemical and crystallographic
aspects of the coatings.

5. Conclusion
Using x-ray diffraction analyses it was possible to prove
that mixing of titania and other oxide ceramic feedstock
could be realized in the SPS process. The obtained
Andersson type coating systems sprayed with suspensions
containing titania and chromia showed a different
behavior during tribological testing on aluminum and
copper based extrudable alloys. Significantly different
results were measured regarding the pairing of the different alloys with the coatings. Further experiments will
be conducted to better understand both the parameters
controlling the feedstocks mixing process in the suspension plasma spraying process on one hand and the influence of temperature induced material separation and
adhesion effects.

Acknowledgments
The work carried out for this contribution was funded
by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the
scope of the priority program 1299 Adaptive Surfaces for
High Temperature ApplicationsThe Skin Concept
(reference number SPP 1299 BA 851/94-1). This support is
gratefully acknowledged by the authors.

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Philos. Mag. A, 1982, 46(1), p 75-86
6. S. Andersson, A. Sundholm, and A. Magneli, A Homologous
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