This study assesses the effectiveness of wire arc sprayed aluminum coatings for protecting welded super duplex stainless steel (UNS S32750) in subsea applications. Pitting and crevice corrosion tests were conducted at different potentials in recirculated synthetic seawater maintained at 90 °C with an acidity of 7.5-8.1 pH. After 90 days, the samples were examined, showing no signs of corrosion even in areas where coating defects were present.

In this study, iron-based coatings are deposited on stainless steel substrates by HVOF and HVAF spraying and are evaluated based on SEM examination, hardness measurements, and corrosion and wear testing and by comparison with WC-CoCr and CrC-NiCr reference coatings. The results indicate that corrosion resistance is insufficient if the coating is not fully dense and has open porosity. During spraying, the particles must be totally melted and rapidly solidified to achieve uniform coating composition. Open porosity and nonuniform distribution of alloy elements, particularly chromium, is seen to induce crevice corrosion in iron-based coatings.

Crevice corrosion of metal/metal contacts in piping assemblies is a key issue for the design and the manufacturing of marine components. In this work, ceramic coatings onto alloy 625 were obtained using multi-processing CAPS facilities (Controlled Atmosphere Plasma Spraying). These coatings were sprayed in the CAPS chamber using air plasma spraying (APS, air at 100 kPa) or using high-pressure plasma spraying (HPPS, argon at 250 kPa) to achieve different coating microstructures and porosity levels. This allowed to investigate the corrosion behaviour in natural sea water of metal/ceramic contacts with different coating systems. Pure alumina or alumina-titania coatings with or without thermally-sprayed alloy 625 bond-coat were tested. Post-treatments like sealing of pores using epoxy resin were also achieved to study the resulting corrosion protection enhancement. Immersion and potentiostatic tests at +300 mV vs. SCE (Standard Calomel Electrode) tests were carried out in natural sea water at different temperature up to 60°C to expose specimens to the most severe working parameters. A beneficial protective effect of ceramic-coated alloy 625 has been clearly evidenced. Further investigations were performed using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy to assess the corrosion behaviour and mechanical soundness of ceramic coated specimens which resulted in the determining of relevant technological solutions to prevent the risk of corrosion.

Different weld overlays were welded by using different weld processes. Both Ni based alloys and Co based alloys were welded on either a c-steel (Weldox 700) or a stainless steel similar to superduplex (UNS 32760). The weld overlays were investigated and compared with respect to effect of the number of layers, chemical compositions of the surface, critical crevice corrosion temperature, microstructure, hardness, friction coefficient, adhesive and abrasive wear resistance. Wear testing was performed on the Co based alloys only. Some electrolytically deposited Ni-coatings were also investigated with respect to crevice corrosion. Both an austenitic and a superduplex stainless steel were tested as reference materials.