Cavitation Erosion Cavitation is the formation and collapse, within a liquid, of cavities or bubbles that contain vapour or gas. Cavitation erosion occurs when bubbles or cavities collapse on or very near the eroded surface. The mechanical shock induced by cavitation is similar to that of liquid impingement erosion causing direct localised damage of the surface or by inducing fatigue. Fretting Wear Fretting is a small amplitude oscillatory motion, usually tangential, between two solid surfaces in contact. Fretting wear occurs when repeated loading and unloading causes cyclic stresses which induce surface or subsurface break-up and loss of material.
Vibration is a common cause of fretting wear.
Reducing Wear by Using Thermal Spray Coatings Thermal spray coatings have and are used in a very broad range of wear resisting surfaces and for the repair of wear resisting surfaces. The main advantage being that thermal spray coating can provide the surface properties and the component substrate material can be chosen from the bulk requirements be it strength, weight or cost without the need to consider it's inherent wear resistance or other surface properties. Selection of the best coating for an application is not often straight forward. Indeed, these coatings do provide the best solution to many applications, but they are certainly not universally suited to all applications. Very low coefficient of friction or non-stick properties Thermal Spray Coatings for Soft Bearing Surfaces Coatings of a soft bearing material allow the embedding of abrasive particles and permit deformation to accommodate some misalignment of the bearing surfaces.