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.

Cold spraying mixed metal-ceramic powders creates metallic matrix composites, but typically achieves low hard phase content in deposits. We investigated this challenge using various hard phases (SiC, diamond, WC, W) with Al and Cu metal matrices. Our results reveal that density difference—not hardness—between components primarily determines deposition efficiency. When using Al with similarly dense materials (diamond, SiC), deposit compositions remained comparable despite hardness variations. However, mixing Al with 50 vol.% of WC or W produced deposits containing 57.9 vol.% and 79.8 vol.% hard phases, respectively. Based on these findings, we established a ballistic theory-based criterion for effective hard particle deposition.

Diamond-reinforced composites prepared by cold spray are emerging materials simultaneously featuring outstanding thermal conductivity and wear resistance. Their mechanical and fatigue properties relevant to perspective engineering applications were investigated using miniature bending specimens. Cold sprayed specimens with two different mass concentrations of diamond 20% and 50% in two metallic matrices (Al – lighter than diamond, Cu – heavier than diamond) were compared with the respective pure metal deposits. These pure metal coatings showed rather limited ductility. The diamond addition slightly improved ductility and fracture toughness of the Cu-based composites, having a small effect also on the fatigue crack growth resistance. In case of the Al composites, the ductility as well as fatigue crack growth resistance and fracture toughness have improved significantly. The static and fatigue failure mechanisms were fractographically analyzed and related to the microstructure of the coatings, observing that particle decohesion is the primary failure mechanism for both static and fatigue fracture.

Ni-Al intermetallics have excellent corrosion and oxidation resistance, but their use in thermal spraying has been limited due to issues with in-flight oxidation. In this study, a novel approach is proposed to remove oxide from Ni-Al droplets in-flight by adding a deoxidizer (diamond) to the feedstock powder. A mixture of nickel, aluminum, and diamond powders was mechanically alloyed using a combination of cryogenic and planetary ball milling. The resulting Ni/Al/diamond composite powder was then plasma sprayed via the APS process, forming Ni-Al coatings on Inconel 738 substrates. Phase composition, microstructure, porosity, and microhardness of the coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis, and hardness testing, respectively. Oxygen content measurements showed that the coatings contained significantly less oxygen than coatings made from ordinary Ni/Al powders. In-flight particle temperatures were also measured and found to be higher than 2300 °C. The low oxygen content in the coatings is attributed to the in-situ deoxidizing effect of ultrahigh temperature droplets which are also oxide-free.

Super wear-resistant aluminum-based metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings were produced using cold spraying. Cu-Ni coated diamond and pure diamond particles were used as reinforcing agents. Test results show that the metallic Cu-Ni shell served as a buffer layer, preventing the fracture of diamond particles upon impact as occurred with the uncoated diamond. The coated diamond particles were also found to have a higher deposition efficiency due to metallurgical bonding between the Cu shell and Al matrix. Under tribological testing, all coatings performed well, but those reinforced with the coated diamond showed higher wear resistance due to higher diamond content and involvement of Cu and Ni.

Diamond-reinforced copper matrix composites (DCMC) have great potential for heat sink applications due to their excellent thermal properties. In this investigation, thick DCMC coatings were fabricated via cold spraying using copper-clad diamond powder or its mixture with copper powder. With pure clad diamond powder, the diamond in the original feedstock was almost completely retained in the coating, which contained more than 40 wt% diamond. With mechanically mixed clad diamond and Cu powder, the diamond fraction in the coating was even larger than that of the original feedstock. It was found that the added Cu powder acts as a buffer, effectively preventing the fracture of diamond in the coating.

In this work, diamond-NiCrAl composite powder was prepared by mechanical alloying and cold sprayed to form an ultra-hard cermet coating. The effect of diamond content on the characteristics of the milled powder and the as-sprayed coating was investigated. The results show that the microstructure, particle size distribution, and grain size of the powder was significantly influenced by the ball milling process and that the microstructure of the spray particles was completely retained in the coating.

This study compares the deposition behavior of kinetic sprayed bronze-diamond composite coatings produced using different mixtures of helium and nitrogen gas. To determine impact properties of the diamond particles, bare and nickel-coated diamonds are deposited on bronze layers and the effects of plastic deformation are examined using SEM and finite-element analysis. The results indicate that the deposition efficiency of diamond is determined by several factors and depends more on the angle and shape of the diamond particles than on the deformation properties of the bronze matrix.

This study assesses the effectiveness of nickel-coated diamond powder for producing metal-diamond composite coatings by cold spraying. The results of the investigation show that diamond fracturing was mitigated by the protective nickel coating. In general, the softer the metal matrix and the finer the diamond, the less fracturing that occurs and the greater the diamond fraction in the composite layer. It is also shown, however, that deposition efficiency and diamond fraction must be improved especially for diamond sizes of 50 μm and above.

Detonation spraying provides the opportunity to produce superabrasive diamond grinding tools under atmospheric conditions. In this study, several methods are used to assess the effects of the spraying process on diamond particles, including SEM analysis, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and friability and fracture force testing. It was found that under optimized conditions, the thermal and mechanical impact of the detonation can remain low enough to ensure the reliability of the diamonds with no adverse effects.

Grinding applications for the machining of stone and concrete require composite tools where large diamonds are perfectly embedded into a metallic matrix. With the detonation flame spraying process it is possible to manufacture these superabrasive composites. Excellent embedment of the voluminous superabrasive particles into the matrix coating material can be realized in order to produce high quality composite layers for grinding applications of stone and concrete. In this paper different diamond sizes as well as different volume contents of diamond in matrix are compared. Especially, the influence of particle size on its implantation efficiency is investigated and the influence of process and substrate temperature is analyzed. The thermal sprayed grinding tools are evaluated in the sense of their morphology as well as their grinding abilities. Compared to sintered diamond-bronze samples the results of an adaptively designed grinding test for the machining of concrete are presented and analyzed.

Wear resistance of materials in very aggressive environment of different industrial sectors like drilling, mining, cutting, etc, appears to be critical and many efforts have been made to limit the major economic loss that represents a broken or damaged tool. The objective of the CLADIAM project (G5ST-CT-2002-50179) is to develop a cladding technique to coat complex parts based on an innovative cladding material composed of diamond pellets and cast spherical tungsten carbide particles using an automated high power diode laser (HPLD) equipment. The result of these two and a half years of work has led to the finalization of following techniques: A pelletizing alloy that takes into account the constraints of laser cladding, Enrobing of diamond particles to avoid their damage, An industrial technique, technically and economically efficient, of laser cladding that allows the realization of complex shapes. The combination of a new technique of wear and abrasion tests has led to the characterization of the obtained cladding. The results have been compared with the tests on industrial parts in severe and even extreme wear conditions. The development of this new cladding technology has been possible thanks to the use, the characterization and the optimization of specific cladding nozzles associated with the special beam of high power diode laser. The results obtained are very encouraging and open the doors to new claddings that combine the specific advantages of diamond and tungsten carbides for the nature of cladding, but also the fineness of the structure, the improvement of behaviour in wear conditions, the small thermal impact of the parts, some of the well known advantages of laser cladding.

Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) are seeing increased use in tribological applications where hardness, toughness and wear resistance are required. Already such qualities have been included within composite coatings by methods such as electrochemical deposition. In this study the feasibility of including diamond as the hard phase in MMC’s using thermal spraying processes has been investigated. In this work the application specifically targeted is that of hard facing for sub sea drill bits, where the coatings experience a harsh environment of high stress abrasion, erosion and corrosion. The coatings were investigated in terms of their microstructure (light microscope, SEM), their elemental composition using EDX and XRD to identify retention of diamond and phases in the coatings, their hardness and abrasion resistance. Preliminary results show that it is possible to produce a hard facing diamond composite coating with good distribution of the diamond phase and little degradation of the diamond during the spraying and that diamond MMCs (DMMC) have potential for improving durability in drill bits. Diamond/metal powder mixture is sprayed onto the surface using an oxyacetylene torch.

Diamond films have been deposited on WC - 6% Co hard metal tools by the DC plasma jet CVD synthesis. The parameters of the process (gas composition, temperature of the gas phase and the substrate, process pressure) as well as of the substrate surface (material, pretreatment) are related to the diamond film growth. For machining abrasive materials the hard and wear resistant diamond coatings must adhere good to the substrate. The wear behaviour of thin diamond films on hard metals under cavitation treatment has been examined. Thus the conditions of diamond synthesis have been varied especially concerning the coating duration and the process pressure and engineering. The cavitation test reacts more sensitive to coating defects of pm size than the conventional testing methods (scratch test, indenter method) and considers the microstructure of the material. Paper text in German.

A diameter of 30 mm polycrystalline diamond film has been deposited by magnet-enhanced DC plasma jet CVD. The diamond film was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and surface profilograph. Results reveal that under the same depositing parameters, magnetic field can increase purity of diamond film, improve thickness uniformity of diamond film, but no influence on crystal perfection and size of microcrystal of diamond film. A discussion on magnetic effect is presented.

Maximizing dissociated species transport in plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD), is important in many low pressure plasma jet processes. To deposit high quality diamond by low pressure plasma assisted CVD, it is important to maximize the atomic hydrogen transport to the substrate. One route to process improvement is to explore ways in which unstable species transport can be maximized. A two-dimensional computational model of a supersonic contoured nozzle attached to a dc torch will be described for examining the chemical non-equilibrium of the flow. If the fluid dynamic time scales of interest are faster than the kinetic time scales of interest, it is believed that unstable precursor transport can be controlled, improved and optimized. This paper will examine an implicit formulation for the numerical simulation of a multi-component reacting Ar-H 2 plasma. It is found that dissociation, ionization and charge exchange reactions must all be included in a reaction model. The ionic species significantly alter the temperature profiles upstream of nozzle choking. However, to increase the number of hydrogen atoms at the nozzle exit, the arc attachment should be positioned as close as possible to the converging-diverging nozzle throat.