Plasma spraying allows melting totally or partially micrometer sized particles, which flatten in about one is onto the substrate to build the coating by layering resulting solidified splats. The coating adhesion is essential and depends mainly on the behaviour of first lamellae in contact with the substrate. But in the plasma spray process about 108 particles/sec impact onto the substrate, and thus it is difficult to understand the role of the different spray parameters onto the coating quality. In order to get a better understanding of phenomena involved, it is necessary to study a single lamella formation. The experimental set-up is composed of a fast (50ns) two-colour pyrometer and an imaging system, comprising two fast (1 to 10 µs) CCD cameras triggered by the velocity signal of the particle in flight prior to its impact. This work is focused on alumina particles flattening onto stainless steel (304L) substrates preheated at different temperatures during different times.

Aluminum powder of 99.85 wt.% purity has been sprayed onto three kinds of glass substrates by cold spray. An interface between Aluminum coating and all glass substrates were smooth, and the single aluminum particle adhered without a gap. It is not observed erosion damage of glass substrate by aluminum with lower impact velocity than critical velocity. In Aluminum coating and the neighborhood of interface of Soda-lime glass substrate, sodium included in glass substrate was distributed in high density. There might be the stratum that the element which constituted an aluminum coating and glass substrate scattered, and it was suggested that the solid-phase joining by a chemical reaction were initiated.

The pin test and stress analysis by FEM were performed for erosion-resistant thermal sprayed coatings, and characteristic of interfacial strength between sprayed coating and substrate was assessed. As a result, the (Kcr) was not affected with specimen size and uniformly converges in spite of the eccentricity of pin.

A previous study indicated that dense thick Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings could be formed by cold spraying, and the post-spray heat treatment could significantly influence the microstructure and microhardness of the as-sprayed Cu- 4Cr-2Nb coatings. In this study, the tensile strength and fracture performance of the Cu-4Cr-2Nb coatings after annealing were investigated. The vacuum heat treatment was conducted under 10-2 Pa at 850°C for 4 h. Results showed that the heat treatment had a great contribution to the healing-up of the incompleteness of the interfaces between the deposited particles. In addition, the coating microhardness decreased from 156.8±4.6 Hv0.2 for the as-sprayed coatings to 101.7±4.5 Hv 0.2 for the annealed ones. The mean tensile strength of the annealed coatings was approximately 298.8±31.5 MPa compared to that of 45±10.5 MPa for the as-sprayed ones, which results from the partially metallurgically bonded zones between the deposited particles inducing by the heat treatment process.

The present investigation shows the fabrication procedure of bimodal WC-VC-Co coatings processed by the HVOF thermal spray process. The effects of nanostructured phase contents on the microstructure and wear resistance of the coatings are included. Special attention is drawn to the mapping of elastic properties within the cobalt matrix, which were measured by nanoindentation. Finally, the influence of VC additions on the size, morphology and stability of the WC phase is also discussed.

The corrosion behavior of thermally sprayed Al-Zn alloy coatings immersed in NaCl aqueous solution was determined by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Ohmic resistance and capacitance of the corrosion product film formed on the sprayed coating surface, and the corrosion resistance and electric double layer capacitance at the interface between the sprayed coating and the solution were evaluated. As immersion time in NaCl solution increased, the corrosion rate of the Al-2mass%Zn coating increased, but the corrosion rate for Al-6mass%Zn and Al-15mass%Zn coatings decreased due to the influence of the corrosion product.

For the development and quality control of highly electrically conductive coatings, a device is required by which the electric conductivity can be measured. For this purpose a handheld device for measuring the electric conductivity of nonferrous metals in a nondestructive manner was tested. The measurement principle is based on an eddy current sensor which allows determining the electric conductivity within seconds. The method fulfills the demands for using it in the environment of a job shop for thermal spraying. Coatings applied with different thermal spraying methods like cold gas, HVOF, electric arc or flame spraying have been examined. Thus, it will be presented a comparison of the electric conductivity dependent on different spraying methods. Additionally, important edge conditions for spraying and measuring the conductivity of highly electrically conductive coatings like the influence of the oxygen content of the powder, the minimal coating thickness measurable with the device and the influence of the surface roughness onto the measurement were analyzed.

Thermal spraying is a material processing technique, which is based on the combination of thermal and kinetic energy. The used feedstock is melted in a hot flame and the melt is atomized and accelerated by means of atomization or process gases. The formed particles are rapidly solidified and consolidate to form splats as they hit a pre-treated substrate. The splats pile one-on-top-of-other forming lamellas and creating the final coating. In the work presented here a combination of cored wire (WC as filling powder) and massive wire (copper) were simultaneously sprayed using the twin wire arc spraying (TWAS) process. 3D micro tomography was used in order to gain knowledge about splat formation and layer build-up. Due to the high attenuation coefficient of tungsten in comparison with copper and carbon tungsten-rich particles and splats can easily be spotted in the tomogram of the coating layer. It turns out that besides irregular formed flat splats also ball-shaped particles exist in the coating layer which suggests that the spherical particles impacted on the substrate in an un-molten state. By 3D data processing tungsten-rich particles were visualized to analyze their spatial distributions as well as their geometric parameters were quantified. This work aims at contributing to the understanding of spraying processes.

The aim of this paper is to propose a LCA comparison of different surface preparation processes (degreasing + sandblasting, laser ablation and laser texturing) which tend to be used before thermal spray. The SimaPro software was used and the needs of materials, the energy and the corresponding emissions of each process, were converted to impact scores on human health, ecosystems, and resource conservation (fossil and mineral resources) by mean of the Eco-Indicator-99 method. Laser pretreatments processes present a very good environmental behaviour in comparison with degreasing + sandblasting.

Ni-Al intermetallic alloys are known for exhibiting superior high temperature properties. Processes such as thermal spray, combustion synthesis, physical vapor deposition and laser have been used to produce these coatings. However, the deposition of these alloys by means of plasma transferred arc (PTA) has not been widely studied. This study evaluated Ni-Al coatings processed in-situ by PTA. Coatings were processed with Ni and Al elemental powders (65%atNi-35%atAl) onto an AISI 1020 steel substrate. Different current intensities were used (70 to 120 A) to produce different dilution levels and thus different Fe contents in the coatings. The stand torch off was 10.0 mm. The plasma gas, shield gas and powder carrier gas flows were 2.0, 15.0 and 1.0 l.min-1, respectively. The powder feed rate was 5.8 g.min-1 and a travel speed of 100 mm. min-1 was used. The coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, optical microscopy and instrument indentation tests. The development of Ni aluminides was confirmed by X-ray diffraction for all current intensities. It was verified that the microstructure, hardness and the elastic modulus were influenced by current intensity and by the Fe content in the coatings.

Oxide compounds basically composed of calcium, magnesium, aluminum and silicon cations also known as CMAS, can be deposited on the surface of thermal barrier coatings (TBC) of gas turbine blades. Under certain operation conditions these compounds have been found to aggressively degrade the TBC, hence affecting the thermo-mechanical properties of the underlying component. Detailed investigation on the interaction of CMAS and the atmospheric plasma sprayed (APS) yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) TBC was performed in a burner rig test facility under thermal gradient cycling conditions and at the same time CMAS deposition. This novel and unique test approach promises a coating screening and characterization test under service conditions. Variable exposure times at approximately 1250°C/1050°C surface/substrate temperatures were applied. The lifetime of the TBC was indicated by the number of thermal cycles until significant spallation occurred. X-ray spectroscopy and microstructural analyses were conducted on the cycled samples to determine the effect of thermo-chemical interactions. It was found that with extended heating period of 10 times the standard cycle, the number of sustainable load alternations heating/cooling was reduced. Interaction of CMAS and YSZ induces formation of glassy soda-silicate phase. Thermal cycling of thermo-physically mismatched TBC and glass melt causes crack formation and coating failure.

Young’s modulus is not only one of the important mechanical properties of thermally sprayed coatings but also a sensitive indicator of the coating’s microstructural defects. The ceramic coatings studied in this work were based on Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 and Cr 2 O 3 and prepared by APS (Atmospheric Plasma Spraying), HVOF (High Velocity Oxy Fuel spraying) and suspension-HVOF spraying. The Young’s modulus was systematically studied by laser acoustic surface waves, which is a non-destructive, fast and reliable technique, using two different devices: a tabletop tester for samples and small components (LAwave) and a hand-held portable device. For oxide coatings, it was observed that the results distinctly vary depending on the spray technology. A comparison with the values derived from the instrumented indentation test shows that for most investigated ceramic coatings lower values were measured by laser acoustics. This is due to the influence of the pores and defects in the coatings. The LAwave results are expected to be close to the effective modulus of the material, due to the larger material volume evaluated during the test, which takes the coating defects into consideration.

This paper compares the results of two approaches of instrumented indentation for characterization of mechanical properties of HVOF coatings. Three types of industrially used HVOF sprayed coatings (Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr, WC-Co, (Ti, Mo)(C,N)-NiCo) were selected. The indentation methods applied were: isolated nanoindentation in metallic matrix and carbides with 2 mN peak load and grid indentation with 2 mN peak loads, comprising 400 indentations. The results of the isolated indentation revealed hardness and elastic modulus of the individual phases with surprisingly low standard deviation and in good agreement with the corresponding bulk equivalent. The grid indentation method, based on statistical evaluation of a large number of indentations, was influenced by the carbide-matrix interface, which gave rise to a strong third peak apart from the two peaks corresponding to the hard carbides and softer metallic matrix. This makes the statistical analysis much more complex than using simple bimodal Gaussian fit for separation of matrix and carbide properties. Nevertheless, the results of both grid indentation and isolated nanoindentation compared with microindentation values obtained at higher loads gave important information about the cohesion of the coatings.