Abstract
High temperature protection requires full coating density, high adhesion, minor oxide inclusions, and preferably fine grains, which is not achievable in most thermal spray processes. High velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray process has been applied extensively for making such coatings with the highest density and adhesion strength, but the existence of not or partially melted particles are usually observed in HVOF-formed coatings because of relative low flame temperature and short particle resident time in the process. This work has investigated the development of an innovative HVOF process using a liquid-state suspension/slurry containing small alloy powders. The advantages of using small particles in a HVOF process include uniform coating, less defective microstructure, higher cohesion and adhesion, full density, lower internal stress and higher deposition efficiency. Process investigations have proven the benefits for making alloy coatings with full density and high bond strength attributing to increased melting of the small particles and the very high kinetic energy of particles striking on the substrate. High temperature oxidation and hot corrosion tests at 800°C have demonstrated that the alloy coatings made by the novel process have superior properties to conventional counterpart coatings in terms of oxidation rates and corrosion penetration depths.
