Abstract
Tungsten heavy alloy (WHA) of W-Ni composition was deposited from a blend of standard thermal spray powders using a radio frequency inductively coupled plasma torch in a protective atmosphere. The coating contained a fully developed WHA structure, i.e., spherical W particles embedded in a Ni-rich matrix. Bending tensile strength Rm, bending yield strength Rp,0.2, and elastic modulus were measured and compared with W-Ni-Co references fabricated by sintered and quenched (SQ) and forged and annealed (FA) powder metallurgy (PM) processes. The fatigue and fracture properties of the plasma spray deposits are comparable with those of the SQ-PM reference material, but inferior to those of the FA-PM reference. The results of various property tests are presented and analyzed in the paper.
