Effect of variation in SiC loading, current density and bath temperature on coating thickness and tensile strength of Ni-SiC nanocomposite coatings

The mechanical properties like hardness, tensile strength, wear resistance of electro-co-deposited Ni-SiC coatings are dependent on factors like bath temperature, current density, duration of deposition, amount of SiC particles etc. Ni-SiC nano composite coatings were prepared on a mild steel substrate by electro-co-deposition process. In this study, the effect of electrochemical bath parameters such as bath temperature, current density and SiC loading were varied and effect of this variation on the coating thickness and tensile strength of Ni-SiC composite coating was studied. The experimental results showed that, a uniform deposit thickness was obtained for 3 A/dm² current density, temperature of 55°C and loading of 4 g/l. A peak value of coating thickness was observed at a current density of 4 A/dm² from the experiment. The experimental results also showed that, the tensile strength of the composite coating containing SiC the is significantly higher than pure Ni coating and the tensile strength increases with an increase in the percentage of SiC particles in Ni-SiC coatings. The tensile strength of the composite coating increased by nearly about 52% with increasing SiC loading and then decreased.