Wear Performance Optimization of Electroless Ni-B Coating Using Taguchi Design of Experiments

The present study outlines the use of Taguchi parameter design to minimize the wear performance of electroless Ni-B coating by optimizing the tribological testing parameters. The tests are carried out in a multitribotester and the three parameters viz. load (L), speed (S) and time (T) are considered with three levels each. An L27 array is used to accommodate the three factors as well as their interaction effects. The Taguchi experiments gave the optimal combination of parameters L1S2T1 (50 N for load, 60 rpm for speed and 5 minute for time). Furthermore, a statistical analysis of variance reveals that both load and time have significant influence over the wear behavior of electroless coating. Also the interaction between load and speed and that between load and time influence wear quite significantly. The coating is characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis. The wear mechanism is also studied and found to be abrasive in nature.