In this research, improvement of tribological behavior of copper based on it's application in continuous casting moulds and increasing their service life was investigated. For this purpose, coating through surface engineering methods was selected. Different coating materials were investigated by ANSYS software to identify thermal behavior of them on copper plates of the moulds. Finally WC-Co cermet was selected for coating on the copper substrate. Different composition of this cermet was used as the microstructure powder (WC-10Co-4Cr, Wc-12Co, WC-17Co) and for nanostructured powder, ball milling process by SPEX 8000 was used for milling microstructure WC-10Co-4Cr powder and then agglomerated by spry drying method. Investigations on coatings characteristics were done by XRD phase analysis, SEM, ball-on-disk wear test in mould operation temperature (350 ??C), micro hardness, fracture toughness, coating cohesion testing and high temperature oxidation (TG). Result of high temperature wear test show that vertical cracks can take place because of difference between thermal expansion coefficient and related stresses in the interface of coating and substrate. It was identified that using Ni-Cr bondcoat between coating and substrate has not positive effect on wear behavior, cohesion and crack-resistance of the coating. Through microstructure coatings with different composition, WC-10Co-4Cr show better fracture toughness and hardness and wear resistance. Nanostructure coating had higher hardness and fracture toughness that microstructure coatings and it's wear resistance and cohesion strength was near to the microstructure coatings. Investigation of high temperature wear behavior of the coatings show that higher content of the binder cobalt phase lead to more cohesion of the coating to substrate and decrease crack formation in the coating. Finally WC-10Co-4Cr microstructure coating was selected for continuous casting copper plates.
