The Tribotechnical Properties of Electrosparks with a Secondary Bronze Coating

The high cost of metal powder materials and the energy consumption of the methods involved in their production have led to an increase in the cost of technologies for the restoration and hardening of parts. One method of solving this problem is the recycling of powders. A promising method for processing the waste from machine-building industries, including those utilizing non-ferrous metals and alloys, is electroerosive dispersion. Metallic powders from secondary raw materials obtained in this manner have good physical and mechanical properties, and their cost is two to three times less than the cost of industrial ones. However, the tribotechnical properties of the secondary powders of non-ferrous metals and their use in technologies for the restoration and hardening of parts are still poorly understood. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the tribotechnical properties of coatings obtained via an electric spark treatment with electrodes composed of bronze CuAl9Fe3 (CuAl8Fe3) (in the state of delivery), and coatings of sintered secondary bronze obtained via the method of electroerosive dispersion followed by spark plasma sintering. The results of the comparative tribotechnical tests under the conditions of dry friction showed that the complex indicator of wear resistance—the wear factor (F)—under dry friction conditions, for mates after an electrospark coating method with sintered secondary bronze, was 1.94 less than for mates with a CuAl9Fe3 (CuAl8Fe3) coating. This confirmed the high tribotechnical properties and the effectiveness of using cheap secondary bronze in repair production in technologies for restoring and strengthening worn parts of machines operating under dry friction conditions.