In this work, cold spray shot peening was used to treat interstitial-free (IF) steel. Different numbers of impact passes were evaluated and the microstructure and hardness evolution in IF steel were analyzed. Based on the experimental results, the potential of CSSP to achieve surface strengthening and properties enhancement in metallic materials is demonstrated.

The aim of this study is to compare the performance of a nickel-based hard-facing alloy cladded with a novel high-power laser cladding process with claddings done by conventional plasma transferred arc claddings with special regards to the wear protection potential.

This paper presents the development of a modified tool steel (X30CrMnMoN13-3-1) specifically designed for defect-free processing via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) without requiring complex machine modifications. The research addresses the dual challenge of carbon-containing tool steels in additive manufacturing: maintaining wear resistance while preventing cracking. Through optimization of the alloying system—particularly with carbon, nitrogen, chromium, molybdenum, and manganese—and the use of moderate preheating (150 °C), the authors achieved crack-free components with hardness levels up to 57 HRC after appropriate heat treatment.

This study examines the effects of N 2 and He process gases and heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 3D-printed pure copper produced using a low-pressure cold spray system. Microstructural analysis is performed through optical microscopy, while tensile tests are used to evaluate mechanical properties. Samples processed with N 2 demonstrate improved plastic deformation, leading to reduced porosity compared to those processed with He.

This study analyzes the influence of reactive elements like H 2 regarding hydrogen embrittlement to determine whether the porous structure of the plasma sprayed coating itself, or the thermal treatment with H 2 is influencing the cohesion and microstructure. To exclude substrate-related influencing factors during testing, tensile rods of thermally sprayed coatings were manufactured.

Additive brazing is a highly advanced process for producing functional and highly durable coatings. By creating a material bond between components through diffusion without the use of flux, dense, wear-resistant, and crack-free layers are formed, which are particularly useful in areas such as wear protection and the reclamation of components. The ability to adjust the coating thickness and hardness makes the process extremely flexible, allowing it to meet the specific requirements of a wide range of applications. Particularly innovative is the ability to precisely and locally braze using laser energy, further enhancing the efficiency and precision of the process. This paper provides an overview of the process, properties of brazed coatings, and applications.

This study investigates the cold gas spraying (CGS) process as an innovative approach for fabricating cBN-copper composite coatings. CGS, a low-temperature thermal spray and additive manufacturing process, prevents thermal degradation of sensitive materials such as cBN and ensures a dense coating with a high bond strength. The research focuses on key parameters such as primary gas temperature and pressure as well as the ratio of cBN to copper, analyzing their effects on coating performance.

The objective of this study was to quantitatively investigate the build-up of residual stresses in selective laser-melted 316L stainless steel samples and identify the nature of the stresses. In addition, the effectiveness of stress relief heat treatment in reducing residual stresses or changing their characteristics was examined. The results were compared against those obtained from conventionally hot-rolled 316L samples.

This article describes advanced techniques used in the repair and refurbishment of a platform combustion system (PCS) for an SGT5-8000H turbine. The first part outlines the refurbishment process of the part basket—a key PCS component—covering inspection, repair, recoating, and final assembly steps. The second part highlights the integration of advanced repair technologies, including laser-based cutting and welding, as well as patch repairs using 3D-printed parts via laser powder bed fusion.

This paper aims to relate the most important mechanical and fracture properties of Inconel 718 built by the 3DMD technology to the two process parameters directly influencing the thermal gradient, the scanning velocity, and the laser power. To gain a phenomenological understanding of the underlying mechanisms, a complex EBSD study of the obtained materials was performed.

Surface texturing is one of the most technologically appropriate laser surface treatment applications. Over the past few decades, texturing has emerged as an attractive surface engineering option and has been used by researchers to generate micro/nanopatterns on operating surfaces. This technique can create simple or complex patterns on component surfaces depending on their aesthetic or functional goals and without altering the overall properties. In addition, this non-contact process can be applied to hard-to-reach areas. Recently, laser surface texturing has been applied to improve the adhesion of contact surfaces. Several authors have demonstrated the impact and benefits of textured surfaces to achieve optimal adhesion of coatings and increase in-service behavior. Nevertheless, based on the laser-matter interaction phenomena, chemical and mechanical transformations of the surfaces can be noticed but are difficult to characterize. Indeed, the affected layers are of the order of a few hundred nanometers. Then, analyses must be performed with variable levels of resolution in order to analyze the structural, chemical and mechanical characteristics of the matter. To develop new applications of unconventional assemblies and improved adhesion of new materials, a control of these local modifications is required.

Cold spraying has emerged as a promising technique for the repair of metallic components. For controlled material deposition, manipulation of the cold spray gun is performed by industrial robots. Such robot-guided cold spraying provides flexible control and automation of the entire process. To enable effective and material-efficient material deposition at specified repair locations, this work proposes a method for automated planning of cold spray paths and trajectories. The method begins with the extraction of the volume to be filled by comparing the nominal and actual component. To produce the extracted volume, it is divided into suitable adaptively curved layers and converted into point clouds for path planning. The cold spray path is then converted into a trajectory by adding a suitable velocity distribution for the spray velocity to produce the required locally varying layer thickness. To validate the suitability of the path and trajectory, a simulation of the material deposition is performed. In addition, the implementation of the entire method is demonstrated by exemplary use cases. The results demonstrate that the proposed method enables successful automated path and trajectory planning, both contributing to the overall goal of automated repair of damaged components by cold spray.

Hybrid aerosol deposition (HAD) has been proposed recently as a new coating regime to deposit homogeneous ceramic coatings via the utilization of mesoplasma and solid particle deposition. This study will discuss the implementation of HAD for the deposition of alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) coatings on 304 stainless steel and aluminum substrates, and evaluation of the hardness and Young’s modulus using a nanoindentation method to clarify the through-thickness properties. Dense and uniform coatings with a nanocrystalline structure were fabricated on both substrate materials. The fabricated HAD coatings consisted of α-Al 2 O 3 phase. The hardness and Young’s modulus distributions along the through-thickness direction showed a significant difference across the coating-substrate interface and tended to show a slight decrease by 10-15% as the measured position went close the surface. Increasing the hardness and Young’s modulus on the substrate side near the interface is presumably related to the peeing effect of the substrate as well as the increase of interface roughness during the room temperature impact consolidation (RTIC) and deformation of the hard ceramic particles on the substrate. The decrease in the coating’s mechanical properties along the through-thickness direction is considered to be related to the particle deformation tendency during the coating build-up. At the beginning stage of the deposition, initial particles are impacting on a metallic substrate which is ductile enough to facile plastic deformation and the deposited layer can have an enough hammering effect by the subsequent impacting particles. The hardness and Young’s modulus in this location are 15.6 GPa and 246 GPa, respectively, and the highest through the thickness in case of the stainless steel substrate. However, the later particles are impacting on a hard ceramic surface (initially formed HAD Al 2 O 3 layers), which hardly undergo plastic deformation or led to less particle deformation. In addition, through-thickness measurements revealed that the deposited coatings on the stainless steel substrate showed higher hardness than deposited coatings on aluminum substrates. Thus, the stainless steel enhances the degree of deformation of the deposited particles, and the resulted smaller crystallite size and strain lead to increased hardness and modulus.

A micro-plasma system was investigated for its capability in additive manufacturing (AM). Micro-plasma AM system has the advantage of lower cost and higher deposition rate over the laser-based AM systems, and generates leaner and cleaner weld deposit than other arc-based AM systems. However, the microplasma system is complex and involves a large number of process variables. In this study, the effects of two arc and wire feed modes on dimensional consistency and hardness were firstly examined. Subsequently, one set of the specimens was further subjected to oxidation tests and the results were compared to that from conventional wrought Inconel 718. It was found that all four processes could produce crack free samples without measurable distortion. Some surface discoloration was observed, ranging from light straw to a purple tint. After heat treatment, the hardness of the samples varies from 403 to 440 HV, with the transverse surface showing slightly lower hardness values. The oxidation tests at 900 °C yielded similar weight change for AM Inconel 718 and its counterpart wrought alloy; however, the rate constant for wrought alloy was slightly higher. Microstructural analysis with SEM and EDS revealed a dendritic structure in the AM Inconel 718 and the presence of Nb-rich compounds in the interdendritic region. The polycrystal grain structure was not delineated in AM material as that in wrought 718. With the increase of exposure time, the oxide layer continues to increase at a higher rate, along with a sublayer of Ni 3 Nb above the metal substrate. In addition, after 200 hours, the wrought alloy developed porous chromia, while AM material exhibited uneven oxide thickness. In consideration of all aspects of the evaluation carried out thus far, it is concluded that the AM material produced by micro-plasma process is equivalent to wrought material in mechanical properties and oxidation performance.

Thermal spray processes benefit from workpiece cooling to prevent overheating of the substrate and to retain metallurgical properties (e.g., temper). Cold-gas “plume quenching” is a plume-targeting cooling technique, where an argon curtain is directed laterally above the substrate surface to re-direct high temperature gases without impacting particle motion. However, there has been little investigation of its effect on the molten particles and the resulting coating properties. This study examined high- and medium- density tantalum and nickel coatings, fabricated by Controlled Atmosphere Plasma Spray with and without plume quenching on aluminum and titanium substrates. To compare the effect of plume quenching, the deposition efficiency was calculated through coating mass gain, and the coating density, stiffness, and adhesion were measured. The tantalum and nickel coatings were largely unaffected by plume quenching with respect to deposition efficiencies, coating density, adhesion, and stiffness. These results indicate that a plume quench could be used without affecting the coating properties for high- and medium-density metals while providing the benefit of substrate cooling that increases with higher plume quench gas flow rates.

Laser cladding is a technology that uses high-energy-density lasers to quickly melt and solidify alloy powder on the surface of the metal substrate to form a cladding layer with good performance. Especially, martensitic stainless steel is widely used as a cladding material due to its high hardness and wear resistance. In this work, the martensitic stainless steel layers were fabricated on the C45 steel substrate by the laser cladding with different process parameters. The results show that holes in the cladding layer is unavoidable. The laser cladding process parameters have the important influence on the residual stress in the cladding layer. Under the action of residual stresses, the holes in the cladding layer will be the source of cracks, which will cause cracks in the cladding layer.

Anisotropy of stress-strain behavior, fracture toughness, and fatigue crack growth rate was studied for Inconel 738LC alloy built by the Dynamic Metal Deposition technique (3DMD, a high-speed Directed Energy Deposition technique). The measured quasi-static properties, i.e. stress-strain and fracture toughness showed only subtle anisotropy, with no more than 10% differences found for different orientations. The fatigue crack growth rate was influenced by the specimen orientation more significantly (30% for fatigue crack growth threshold, up to 90% for Paris exponent and coefficient). This pilot study attributes the anisotropy of fatigue crack growth properties to material texture and the columnar grain geometry resulting from directional solidification. The obtained testing results indicate that 3DMD technology can produce materials with good mechanical and fracture properties even from materials considered as non-weldable such as In 738LC. The study provides a solid experimental base for further investigation of the fatigue crack growth mechanism relation to the material texture in 3DMD In 738LC.