In industries where precision and durability are critical, component wear remains one of the most pervasive threats to long-term performance. Whether it’s an actuator in an aircraft or a rotating shaft in a subsea pump, wear increases the frequency of maintenance cycles, raises costs and poses serious reliability concerns.
To navigate these challenges, engineers need a clear understanding of the basics and types of wear, the risks it brings and why advanced coating solutions are fundamentally changing the approach to wear resistance.
Wear is the gradual removal or deformation of material from a surface due to mechanical action. It might seem like a slow burn issue, but the consequences can be catastrophic. Loss of dimensional integrity, compromised sealing, reduced efficiency and unplanned downtime are just the beginning.
Over time, even minor wear can turn into a cascade of failure, especially in components that operate under high loads, in abrasive environments or across complex mechanical assemblies. What starts as surface fatigue or friction can ultimately cause systems to seize, leak or degrade beyond repair.
Component wear comes with major costs that can easily be underestimated as the damage accumulates slowly. In regulated or high-performance environments (such as aerospace or energy) even small amounts of wear can trigger total system failure or safety-critical issues. This is especially the case for components that are improperly protected and operating in harsh environments, leading to a number of issues for engineers.
Increased maintenance frequency and unscheduled downtime
Premature component replacement
Seal degradation and fluid leakage
Reduced system efficiency and higher operating temperatures
Greater emissions and waste due to poor mechanical efficiency
Components can encounter various wear mechanisms depending on the application and environment, each requiring a different approach to mitigation. Understanding which type of wear your component is exposed to is critical to choosing the right protective strategy.
Abrasive wear: Caused by hard particles or rough surfaces cutting into a material.
Adhesive wear (galling): When surfaces under load begin to transfer material due to bonding and tearing.
Fretting: Repetitive micro-motion at joints causing localised wear and fatigue.
Sliding wear: Occurs in continuous relative movement, degrading surface finishes and increasing friction.
Impact wear: The result of repeated forceful contacts leading to chipping or cracking.
Many industries still rely on legacy coatings like Hard Chrome Plating (HCP), HVOF and PVD. These offer a level of hardness or corrosion protection, but often introduce their own weaknesses.
Hard Chrome, for instance, contains a network of micro-cracks which can act as stress concentrators and corrosion pathways. HVOF coatings use cobalt or nickel binders that can degrade under abrasive or corrosive conditions, resulting in seal-damaging surfaces described as “cheese graters” by some engineers. And whilst PVD coatings provide a hard outer layer, they are often too thin to offer real wear protection under load.
In many cases, these coatings are brittle, uneven, porous or poorly bonded to the substrate, meaning they fail in a number of extreme environments.
Hardide’s range of CVD tungsten carbide coatings take a fundamentally different approach to wear resistance. Deposited atom-by-atom from a gas phase, the coatings are nanostructured, pore-free and exceptionally tough. This makes Hardide coatings ideal for components such as valve stems, plungers, actuators, pumps, and rotating shafts especially where high loads, complex shapes or dry-sliding contact are involved.
Up to 24x more wear resistant than Hard Chrome and 6x more than HVOF
Withstand contact pressures up to 810 MPa without galling
Uniformly coat internal surfaces and non-line-of-sight geometries
Maintain an optimal surface finish even under abrasive and corrosive loads
Improve or maintain fatigue performance compared to uncoated parts
Wear resistance is a key engineering strategy. Choosing the right surface protection can transform how a component performs, how often it needs attention and how long it can stay in service.
Hardide’s CVD coatings are a key solution to one of engineering’s most persistent problems. Backed by proven test data and real-world applications across aerospace, energy and industrial sectors, they deliver unmatched wear performance exactly where it counts.
If you’re designing for longevity, reliability and sustainability, wear resistance needs to be at the core of your approach. To find out more about how our coatings are the gold-standard against wear, download our guide below.