Study of Sliding Wear Behavior of Plasma Sprayed Red Mud Composite Coatings on Mild Steel 1

Surface modification is a generic term that is now applied to a wide range of diverse technologies that
can be gainfully used to enable industrial components in exhibiting increased reliability and enhanced
performance. The incessant quest for higher efficiency and productivity across the entire spectrum of
manufacturing and engineering industries has ensured the exposure of most modern-day components
to increasingly harsher environments during routine operation. Therefore, critical industrial
components are prone to more rapid degradation because the components fail to withstand the
rigorous operating conditions. This fact has been taking a heavy toll on the industry’s economy. In an
overwhelmingly large number of cases, the accelerated deterioration of components and their
eventual failure has been attributed to the material damage due to hostile environments and attributed
to the high relative motion between mating surfaces, corrosive media, extreme temperatures, and
cyclic stresses. Simultaneously, research efforts focussed on the development of new fabrication
materials are beginning to yield diminishing returns. Moreover, it appears to be unlikely that any
significant advances in terms of component performance and durability can be made only through the
development of new alloys. Due to the above factors, the concept of incorporating engineered
surfaces capable of combating the accompanying degradation phenomena such as wear, corrosion,
and fatigue for improving component performance, reliability, and durability has gained increasing
acceptance in recent years. The information that a vast majority of engineering components have
failed catastrophically in their service due to surface related phenomena has further fuelled the
concept and led to the development of a broad interdisciplinary area of surface modifications. A
protective coating deposited to act as a barrier between the outer surfaces of the component and the
aggressive environment that the component is exposed to during operation has now been globally
acknowledged to be an attractive means for significantly reducing the damage to the actual
component by acting as the first line of defence.