Abstract
The development of new spraying processes has increased the demand for high quality protective coatings. Many thermal spraying processes have been developed to obtain coatings for a wide spectrum of materials and substrates. The plasma spray process was used to deposit coatings of WC-12%Co powders on mild steel substrate, and the characteristics of as-sprayed and vacuum heat treated coatings have been investigated. The variations of microhardness and bond strength in WC-12%Co coatings after heat treatment under vacuum circumstance have been investigated. The effects of phases and morphologies of WC-12%Co coatings have been investigated by utilizing X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The microhardness and bond strength of the coatings were increased with increasing the temperature in the temperature range of $700^{circ}C~1000^{\circ}C$. The bond strength was obtained 49 MPa after vacuum heat treatment at $1000^{\circ}C$.
