Thermal-sprayed Fe-10CM3P-7C amorphous coatings possessing excellent corrosion resistance

An alloy of Fe-10Cr-13P-7C was thermally sprayed by three different processes: (1) 80 kW low-pressure plasma spraying (LPPS), (2) high-velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) spraying, and (3) 250 kW high-energy plasma spraying (HPS). The as-sprayed coating obtained by the LPPS process was composed of an amorphous phase. In contrast, the as-sprayed coatings obtained by the HVOF and HPS processes were a mixture of amorphous and crystalline phases. The as-sprayed coatings showed a high hardness of 700 DPN. A very fine structure composed of ferrite, carbide, and phosphide was formed, producing a maximum hardness of greater than 1000 DPN in the LPPS coating just after crystallization on tempering. The corrosion re-sistance of the amorphous coating was superior to a SUS316L stainless steel coating in 1N H₂SO₄ solution and 1N HC1 solution. Furthermore, the amorphous coating underwent neither general nor pitting corro sion in1NUCI solution and 6% FeCl₃ 6H₂O solution containing 0.05N HCl, whereas the SUS316L stain less steel coating was attacked aggressively.     

高速火焰喷涂高质量NiCoCrAlTaReSiY抗氧化涂层

研究了用高速火焰喷涂(HVOF)替代低压等离子喷涂(LPPS)沉积高质量的MCrAlY涂层。试验用粉料为NiCoCrAlTaReSiY,采用以煤油为燃料的K2型HVOF系统沉积涂层,研究喷嘴长度、喷涂工艺参数对粉末沉积工艺过程以及涂层性能的影响;测量涂层的孔隙率及氧含量,观察涂层经真空热处理以及高温空气氧化后的显微结构,测量了Al、O等元素在氧化涂层中的分布。结果表明,所沉积的NiCoCrAlTaReSiY涂层具有优越的抗氧化性。     

Cubic titanium trialuminide thermal spray coatings—A review

The recently discovered Cr-stabilized cubic titanium trialuminides of the form (Al,Cr)₃Ti exhibit excellent oxidation resistance up to 1200 °C and have formed the basis for development of a new family of protective coatings. These intermetallic compounds can be fabricated into powders and thermal spray coatings much the same as traditional metal alloys. Cubic trialuminide coatings have physical properties that are compatible with a variety of common engineering materials, including alloys based on Ti, TiAl, Fe, Ni, and Al. Typically, the coatings will impart sufficient protection to permit an increase in the service temperature of a substrate alloy by 150 °C, or more. The purpose here is to summarize the development of these new thermal spray coatings, including properties and microstructures, as well as performance of the coating on various substrates. A brief comparison is made between the deposition processes used to date, which include low-pressure plasma spray (LPPS), air plasma spray (APS), and high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) deposition. Recent successes in modifying the coatings to a composite form by incorporating a very fine dispersion of nanoscale carbide particles are also discussed.     

Plasma Spray-PVD: A New Thermal Spray Process to Deposit Out of the Vapor Phase

Plasma spray-physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) is a low pressure plasma spray technology recently developed by Sulzer Metco AG (Switzerland). Even though it is a thermal spray process, it can deposit coatings out of the vapor phase. The basis of PS-PVD is the low pressure plasma spraying (LPPS) technology that has been well established in industry for several years. In comparison to conventional vacuum plasma spraying (VPS) or low pressure plasma spraying (LPPS), the new proposed process uses a high energy plasma gun operated at a reduced work pressure of 0.1 kPa (1 mbar). Owing to the high energy plasma and further reduced work pressure, PS-PVD is able to deposit a coating not only by melting the feed stock material which builds up a layer from liquid splats but also by vaporizing the injected material. Therefore, the PS-PVD process fills the gap between the conventional physical vapor deposition (PVD) technologies and standard thermal spray processes. The possibility to vaporize feedstock material and to produce layers out of the vapor phase results in new and unique coating microstructures. The properties of such coatings are superior to those of thermal spray and electron beam-physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) coatings. In contrast to EB-PVD, PS-PVD incorporates the vaporized coating material into a supersonic plasma plume. Owing to the forced gas stream of the plasma jet, complex shaped parts such as multi-airfoil turbine vanes can be coated with columnar thermal barrier coatings using PS-PVD. Even shadowed areas and areas which are not in the line of sight of the coating source can be coated homogeneously. This article reports on the progress made by Sulzer Metco in developing a thermal spray process to produce coatings out of the vapor phase. Columnar thermal barrier coatings made of Yttria-stabilized Zircona (YSZ) are optimized to serve in a turbine engine. This process includes not only preferable coating properties such as strain tolerance and erosion resistance but also the simultaneous coverage of multiple air foils.     

Fabrication and Characterization of Thermal-Sprayed Fe-Based Amorphous/Nanocrystalline Composite Coatings: An Overview

This review focuses on the recent development of iron (Fe)-based amorphous/nanocrystalline composite coatings, which have attracted much attention due to their attractive combination of high hardness/strength, elevated abrasive wear resistance, and enhanced corrosion resistance. Accompanying the advancements in various thermal spray technologies, industrial application fields of Fe-based amorphous/nanocrystalline composite coatings are becoming more diverse. In the main part, the typical empirical rules for the design of amorphous alloys with high glass-forming ability are generalized and discussed at first. Then various thermal spray technologies for the fabrication of Fe-based amorphous/nanocrystalline composite coatings, such as high velocity oxygen/air spray (HVOF/HVAF), air plasma spray (APS), low-pressure plasma spray (LPPS), high-energy plasma spray (HPS), and high velocity arc spray (HVAS) processes, are introduced. The microstructures, hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance of Fe-based amorphous/nanocrystalline composite coatings formed using these thermal spray technologies are reviewed and compared. Finally, the existing challenges and future prospects are proposed.     

HVOF Combustion spraying of inconel powder

A major trend in the thermal spray industry has been to increase the gas jet velocity to obtain better coating attributes. One emerging technology now used in industry is the high-velocity oxygen fuel process (HVOF). High-velocity spray guns combine oxygen and a fuel gas to generate heat and extremely high particle velocities. In this study, Inconel 718 powder was deposited on steel substrates. The primary coating function was electrical resistivity for a heater application. Experiments were conducted using a Taguchi L8 statistical fractional/factorial design parametric study. The Taguchi experiment evaluated the effect of six HVOF processing variables on the measured responses. The parameters were oxygen flow, fuel flow, air envelope gas flow, powder feed rate, spray distance, and nozzle configuration. The coatings were characterized by hardness tests, surface profilometry, optical metallography, and image analysis. This article investigates coating hardness, porosity, surface roughness, deposition efficiency, and microstructure with respect to the influence of the processing parameters. Analytical studies were conducted to investigate gas, particle, and coating dynamics for two of the HVOF thermal spray experiments.     

热喷涂NiCoCrAlYTa+7YSZ热障涂层颗粒沉积行为

分别采用低压等离子喷涂和大气等离子喷涂在K4169基体上收集了NiCoCrAlYTa颗粒沉积物及涂层,并对颗粒沉积物的形貌及涂层性能进行了观察分析。结果表明:低压等离子喷涂收集到的单个NiCoCrAlYTa扁平颗粒主要呈圆盘状,涂层致密且氧含量低。而大气等离子喷涂收集到的扁平颗粒主要呈溅射状,涂层孔隙率和氧含量均较高。又在经镜面抛光的NiCoCrAlYTa涂层和K4169基体上分别收集了7YSZ颗粒沉积物,并对其沉积形貌进行了观察分析,结果表明:在K4169基体上收集到的7YSZ颗粒沉积物主要呈圆盘状,表面存在大量的网状微裂纹及宏观环状贯通裂纹。在镜面抛光的NiCoCrAlYTa涂层表面收集的7YSZ颗粒沉积物,周围有少量的指状溅射物,中心部存在一定数量的网状微裂纹,但宏观环状裂纹消失。     

Characterization of plasma sprayed Fe-17Cr-38Mo-4C amorphous coatings crystallizing at extremely high temperature

A Fe-17Cr-38Mo-4C alloy powder was plasma sprayed by three processes: an 80 kW low-pressure plasma spray (LPPS), a 250 kW high-energy plasma spray (HPS), and a 40 kW conventional plasma spray (APS). The as-sprayed coating obtained by the LPPS process is composed of only amorphous phase. As-sprayed coatings obtained by the HPS and APS processes are a mixture of amorphous and crystalline phases. The three as-sprayed coatings exhibit a high hardness of 1000 to 1100 DPN. The amorphous phase in these coatings crystallizes at a high temperature of about 920 K. A very fine structure composed of hard ϰ-phase and carbides is formed after crystallization. The hardness of the coating obtained by LPPS reaches a maximum of 1450 DPN just after crystallization on tempering and retains a high hardness more than 1300 DPN after tempering at high temperatures of 1173 or 1273 K. The corrosion potential of the amorphous coating is the highest among the three coatings and higher than that of a SUS316L stainless steel coating. The anodic polarization measurements infer that the corrosion resistance of the amorphous coating is superior or comparable to SUS316L stainless steel coating in H₂SO₄ solution.     

Effect of Thermal Treatment on High-Temperature Mechanical Properties Enhancement in LPPS, HVOF, and APS CoNiCrAlY Coatings

The mechanical properties of a MCrAlY coating significantly influence the initiation of cracks in the superalloy substrate under thermomechanical-fatigue conditions. Previous studies have developed a convenient method for evaluating the mechanical properties of sprayed coatings by lateral compression of a circular tube coating. This method does not need chucking, and manufacturing the free-standing coating is quite straightforward. In this study, the mechanical properties of the free-standing CoNiCrAlY coatings prepared using low-pressure plasma spraying (LPPS), high-velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) spraying, and atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) were systematically measured with the lateral compression method at room temperature through to 920 °C. The effect of postspray thermal treatments, in vacuum and in air, on the mechanical properties was investigated in the 400 to 1100 °C temperature range. It was found that high-temperature thermal treatment in air was effective in increasing the bending strength and Young’s modulus. It was especially effective on the APS coatings, which were produced using powders with average size 60 μm, and on HVOF coating, whose bending strengths increased by approximately three times. On the contrary, the enhancement in the LPPS and APS coatings produced with powders 21 μm in size was found to be approximately 1.6 times.     

Wear Resistance Improvement of Small Dimension Invar Massive Molds for CFRP Components

Invar alloy (Fe-36%Ni) is used in industrial applications that require high dimensional stability because of its exceptionally low thermal expansion coefficient. The purpose of this work is to improve the wear resistance of the molds in the production of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) components applying thermal spray coatings. Four different kinds of commercial powders were coated on an Invar substrate: ZrO₂-8Y₂O₃, Al₂O₃-13TiO₂, and Cr₂O₃ by air plasma spray (APS) and WC-CoCr by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF). Metallographic microscopy observation and scanning electron microscopic analysis were carried out, microhardness and fracture toughness were evaluated using the microindentation method. Friction behavior and wear resistance were evaluated with pin-on-disk apparatus. Tungsten carbide coating had the lowest average coefficient of friction. Cermet and alumina-titania coatings showed the lowest wear mass loss. Among the APS ceramic coatings, alumina-titania exhibited the best wear behavior and the HVOF cermet coating exhibited the best behavior among all the coatings.     

Microstructural Evolution of SAPS/HVOF CoNiCrAlY Alloy Coating During Thermal Cycling Test

In this paper, CoNiCrAlY alloy coatings were deposited by high-efficiency supersonic atmospheric plasma spraying (SAPS) and high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying. The microstructural evolution of coatings during thermal cycling test was investigated. The results suggested that the as-sprayed SAPS coating consisted of lamellar structures and unmelted particles. However, the as-sprayed HVOF coating primarily consisted of the unmelted particles. The β-NiAl phase mainly existed in the unmelted particles, and its content increased with the increase of unmelted particles. The thermal cycling life of SAPS coating was 258 cycles, about 117 % higher than that of HVOF coating. During thermal cycling, significant internal oxidation and large cracks formed in the HVOF coating, which was one of the reasons that led to the spallation of HVOF coating.     

低温超音速火焰喷涂工艺制备轴承钢为基体的WC-12Co厚涂层

采用超音速火焰喷涂工艺(HVOF)制备的WC-12Co涂层能够显著提高系统的硬度和耐磨特性。然而,该工艺中的高温参数会使得涂层在制备过程中产生脱碳现象。本文尝试将WC-12Co涂层引入到滚动副中以提高界面的摩擦学性能和抗磨损特性,例如固体火箭发动机中用于推力矢量控制的滚动轴承,通过温度可控的超音速火焰喷涂工艺在轴承钢基体上制备涂层。详细研究了涂层的相分布、成分组成、微观结构、与基体的结合强度、弹性模量和微观硬度,验证了改进后工艺的可行性和先进性,并阐明了涂层与轴承钢基体之间的结合机制。在WC骨架假设和钴相均匀分布的假设下,根据硬度性能的测试结果,给出了WC-12Co涂层微观硬度的一个经验公式,可用于涂层硬度的理论预估和设计优化。     

FeAl and Mo–Si–B intermetallic coatings prepared by thermal spraying

FeAl and Mo–Si–B intermetallic coatings for elevated temperature environmental resistance were prepared using high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) and air plasma spray (APS) techniques. For both coating types, the effect of coating parameters (spray particle velocity and temperature) on the microstructure and physical properties of the coatings was assessed. Fe–24Al (wt%) coatings were prepared using HVOF thermal spraying at spray particle velocities varying from 540 to 700 m/s. Mo–13.4Si–2.6B coatings were prepared using APS at particle velocities of 180 and 350 m/s. Residual stresses in the HVOF FeAl coatings were compressive, while stresses in the APS Mo–Si–B coatings were tensile. In both cases, residual stresses became more compressive with increasing spray particle velocity due to increased peening imparted by the spray particles. The hardness and elastic moduli of FeAl coatings also increased with increasing particle velocity. For Mo–Si–B coatings, plasma spraying at 180 m/s resulted in significant oxidation of the spray particles and conversion of the T1 phase into amorphous silica and -Mo. The T1 phase was retained after spraying at 350 m/s.     

冷喷涂和低压等离子喷涂Ni-Ti涂层：组织和性能

采用原子比1：1的Ni和Ti为原料,通过冷喷涂(CS)和低压等离子喷涂(LPPS)制备了Ni-Ti复合涂层,研究喷涂工艺对涂层的组织(孔隙率、相组成和显微组织)和性能(硬度、耐磨性和耐蚀性)的影响。结果表明：两种涂层均未发生明显的氧化,但表现出不同的组织结构。高速碰撞后的颗粒发生严重塑性变形使CS涂层具有低的孔隙率,且XRD未检测到其它的相生成;层片状结构的LPPS涂层内部形成了Ni-Ti金属间化合物相,其表现出高的显微硬度和低的磨损率。此外,LPPS涂层高的腐蚀电位和低的腐蚀电流密度,表明其高的耐蚀性。     

Improving corrosion properties of high-velocity oxy-fuel sprayed inconel 625 by using a high-power continuous wave neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser

Thermal spray processes are widely used to protect materials and components against wear, corrosion and oxidation. Despite the use of the latest developments of thermal spraying, such as high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) and plasma spraying, these coatings may in certain service conditions show inadequate performance,e.g., due to insufficient bond strength and/or mechanical properties and corrosion resistance inferior to those of corresponding bulk materials. The main cause for a low bond strength in thermalsprayed coatings is the low process temperature, which results only in mechanical bonding. Mechanical and corrosion properties typically inferior to wrought materials are caused by the chemical and structural inhomogeneity of the thermal-sprayed coating material. To overcome the drawbacks of sprayed structures and to markedly improve the coating properties, laser remelting of sprayed coatings was studied in the present work. The coating material was nickel-based superalloy Inconel 625, which contains chromium and molybdenum as the main alloying agents. The coating was prepared by HVOF spraying onto mild steel substrates. High-power continuous wave Nd:YAG laser equipped with large beam optics was used to remelt the HVOF sprayed coating using different levels of power and scanning speed. The coatings as-sprayed and after laser remelting were characterized by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Laser remelting resulted in homogenization of the sprayed structure. This strongly improved the performance of the laser-remelted coatings in adhesion, wet corrosion, and high-temperature oxidation testing. The properties of the laser-remelted coatings were compared directly with the properties of as-sprayed HVOF coatings and with plasma-transferred arc (PTA) overlay coatings and wrought Inconel 625 alloy.     

Study of the influence of microstructural properties on the sliding-wear behavior of HVOF and HVAF sprayed WC-cermet coatings

The microstructural properties of WC-Co-Cr and WC-Co coatings deposited by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) and high-velocity air fuel (HVAF) processes were investigated. The tribological behavior of the coatings was studied by means of pin-on-disk tests. Microcracking of the HVOF sprayed WC-Co coatings did not allow preparation of suitable disks for wear tests. The wear rates of the remaining coatings were determined, and wear tracks on the coatings and counterbodies were investigated by SEM. The HVAF sprayed coatings showed greater sliding-wear resistance compared to the HVOF coatings. The prime wear mechanism in the WC-Co HVAF coatings was adhesive wear. The cobalt matrix is lubricious, resulting in very low wear rates and low debris generation. The main wear mechanisms in the WC-Co-Cr coatings were adhesive and abrasive wear. Adhesive wear results in coating material dislodgments (i.e., “pullouts”) that become trapped in the contact zone and act as a third-body abrasive. Particle pullout from the coating significantly increases the wear rate of the coated specimen. The HVAF/WC-Co-Cr coatings exhibited better resistance to particle pullout, resulting in a considerably lower wear rate than the HVOF/WC-Co-Cr coatings.     

A Comparative Study on Ni-Based Coatings Prepared by HVAF,HVOF, and APS Methods for Corrosion Protection Applications

Selection of the thermal spray process is the most important step toward a proper coating solution for a given application as important coating characteristics such as adhesion and microstructure are highly dependent on it. In the present work, a process-microstructure-properties-performance correlation study was performed in order to figure out the main characteristics and corrosion performance of the coatings produced by different thermal spray techniques such as high-velocity air fuel (HVAF), high-velocity oxy fuel (HVOF), and atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). Previously optimized HVOF and APS process parameters were used to deposit Ni, NiCr, and NiAl coatings and compare with HVAF-sprayed coatings with randomly selected process parameters. As the HVAF process presented the best coating characteristics and corrosion behavior, few process parameters such as feed rate and standoff distance (SoD) were investigated to systematically optimize the HVAF coatings in terms of low porosity and high corrosion resistance. The Ni and NiAl coatings with lower porosity and better corrosion behavior were obtained at an average SoD of 300 mm and feed rate of 150 g/min. The NiCr coating sprayed at a SoD of 250 mm and feed rate of 75 g/min showed the highest corrosion resistance among all investigated samples.     

Effect of Operating Parameters on a Dual-Stage High Velocity Oxygen Fuel Thermal Spray System

High velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) thermal spray systems are being used to apply coatings to prevent surface degradation. The coatings of temperature sensitive materials such as titanium and copper, which have very low melting points, cannot be applied using a single-stage HVOF system. Therefore, a dual-stage HVOF system has been introduced and modeled computationally. The dual-spray system provides an easy control of particle oxidation by introducing a mixing chamber. In addition to the materials being sprayed, the thermal spray coating quality depends to a large extent on flow behavior of reacting gases and the particle dynamics. The present study investigates the influence of various operating parameters on the performance of a dual-stage thermal spray gun. The objective is to develop a predictive understanding of various parameters. The gas flow field and the free jet are modeled by considering the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy with the turbulence and the equilibrium combustion sub models. The particle phase is decoupled from the gas phase due to very low particle volume fractions. The results demonstrate the advantage of a dual-stage system over a single-stage system especially for the deposition of temperature sensitive materials.     

Vapor Phase Deposition Using Plasma Spray-PVD™

Plasma spray—physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) is a low pressure plasma spray technology to deposit coatings out of the vapor phase. PS-PVD is a part of the family of new hybrid processes recently developed by Sulzer Metco AG (Switzerland) on the basis of the well-established low pressure plasma spraying (LPPS) technology. Included in this new process family are plasma spray—chemical vapor deposition (PS-CVD) and plasma spray—thin film (PS-TF) processes. In comparison to conventional vacuum plasma spraying and LPPS, these new processes use a high energy plasma gun operated at a work pressure below 2 mbar. This leads to unconventional plasma jet characteristics which can be used to obtain specific and unique coatings. An important new feature of PS-PVD is the possibility to deposit a coating not only by melting the feed stock material which builds up a layer from liquid splats, but also by vaporizing the injected material. Therefore, the PS-PVD process fills the gap between the conventional PVD technologies and standard thermal spray processes. The possibility to vaporize feedstock material and to produce layers out of the vapor phase results in new and unique coating microstructures. The properties of such coatings are superior to those of thermal spray and EB-PVD coatings. This paper reports on the progress made at Sulzer Metco to develop functional coatings build up from vapor phase of oxide ceramics and metals.     

Effect of high-velocity oxygen-fuel thermal spraying on the physical and mechanical properties of type 316 stainless steel

Data on the microstructural, physical, and mechanical characteristics of high-velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF)-sprayed type 316 stainless steel coatings are presented and compared with properties of wrought 316 stainless steel. Coatings were prepared at three different spray particle velocities; coating characteristics are presented as a function of velocity. The coatings had relatively low porosity and oxide contents and were significantly harder than annealed, wrought 316 stainless steel. The hardness difference is primarily attributed to high dislocation densities resulting from peening imparted by high-velocity spray particles. The coating hardness increased with increasing spray particle velocity, reflecting increased peening effects. The elastic modulus of the coatings was essentially identical to wrought material. The mean coefficient of thermal expansion of as-sprayed coatings was lower than wrought material, but the expansion of annealed coatings matched the wrought behavior.