Development of dense corrosion resistant coatings by an improved HVOF spraying process

For 6 years, we have developed corrosion resistant coatings to protect steel structures in the marine environment by using a thermal spray technique. This paper summarizes the major developments and results obtained. Such a coating requires primarily impermeability and secondarily homogenous and clean microstructure. In order to make denser and highly corrosion resistant coatings, we selected spray materials and improved fabrication processes. HastelloyC was a suitable material for High Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) spraying to form corrosion resistant coatings because of its high resistance against thermal oxidation as well as seawater corrosion, especially crevice and pitting corrosion. An inert gas shroud system was attached with a commercial HVOF apparatus and this attachment increased the in-flight velocity of spray particles over 750 m s^?1 and simultaneously suppressed oxidation significantly. In addition, some new methods were designed to evaluate the sprayed particle’s state and the coating properties with high accuracy and sensitivity. Thermal energy of in-flight spray particles was revealed by molten fraction of spray particles, determined by quantitative analysis of melted and unmelted particles captured in an agar gel. Through-porosity of the coatings with open porosity below 0.1% was determined by using Inductively Coupled Plasma analysis of dissolved substance from substrate through the penetrating path of the coatings. The coating of HastelloyC nickel base alloy by the HVOF spraying with the gas shroud attachment had zero through-porosity and 0.2 mass% of oxygen content. The laboratory corrosion tests showed that the on-shroud HastelloyC coating was comparable to the bulk material of HastelloyC in terms of corrosion resistance. This coating, formed on steel, demonstrated an excellent protective performance over 10 months in the marine exposure test.