Abstract
This study assesses the corrosion performance of aluminum-manganese (Al-Mn) coatings deposited on 42CrMo4 steel by atmospheric plasma spraying and (APS). Al-Mn alloy powder containing 25 at% Mn was gas atomized under nitrogen atmosphere using pure Al and Mn as starting materials. The powder was characterized by laser granulometry and SEM-EDX analysis. A fraction with particle sizes ranging from 10 to 60 μm was used as the feedstock powder. The APS coatings were characterized by optical image analysis, Vickers hardness measurements, and salt-spray testing. The Al-Mn coatings exhibited significantly higher hardness in comparison to pure aluminum. Red rust appeared after 240 h of salt-spray testing, leading to local coating detachment after 1000 h. The corrosion attack starts at coating defects such as microcracks, which can be attributed to the brittleness and nonuniform melting behavior of the powder and possibly inhomogeneities in the spraying process.
