Arc spraying has always been the most cost-effective way of thermal spraying metal alloys but oxide content and degradation of the alloy by loss of particular alloying elements have limited quality of the coatings. In this paper a process is described which greatly reduces degradation and improves coating density and oxide content. Corrosion behaviour both in aqueous and high temperature environments is markedly improved. For aqueous applications coatings of Inconel 625 were tested in a potentio-dynamic cell and by salt spray testing to evaluate both the inherent properties and the permeability of the coating and significantly improved behaviour was found in both cases. For high temperature corrosion, samples of FeCrAl were tested in air and in a sulphidising environment with and without thermal cycling. Coatings of NiCrAl and NiCrTi were also examined. The coating types and test regimes were aimed at specific practical applications such as fireside corrosion in boilers and waste incinerators, hot oxidation of flare stack burners etc. In the aqueous situation valves and process vessels are being examined as candidate applications for Inconel 625 coatings.

In a BRITE-EURAM Project gas shroud devices were developed for arc-wire and air plasma spraying processes to obtain cost effective coatings with high density, low defect contents and high corrosion resistance. To test the two devices FeCrAl, NiCrAl and NiCrTi coatings sprayed by shrouded arc were studied for boiler application; AMDRY 995 coatings sprayed by shrouded plasma were analysed for gas turbine blades. In this paper the results are presented of the extensive characterization performed by CESI on the coatings produced with the innovative techniques developed by the other partners. The coatings were sectioned and analysed by metallography and image analysis to determine oxide and porosity contents (total defect levels were less than 5%). Hardness and adhesion were measured following the ASTM standard procedures. On FeCrAl, NiCrAl and NiCrTi coatings sprayed by shrouded arc-wire technique both thermal cycling and corrosion tests were performed. A sulphidizing gaseous atmosphere was used to simulate boiler environment burning sulphur rich fuel as Orimulsion. The corrosion behavior after 1000h at 450°C resulted to be as good as that of an HVOF sprayed similar coating. Moreover coated tubes survived to thermal cycling tests without any delamination. Hot corrosion "Dean tests" were performed on AMDRY995 coatings sprayed by shrouded plasma onto two Ni-base superalloys (Ud 529 and In738). The environment was typical of hot parts in gas turbines; the corrosion resistance results after 1750h at 850°C were comparable to those typically obtained on the same material sprayed by vacuum plasma spray technique. The applicability of the shrouded plasma technique to the field of gas turbines was confirmed.

Shrouding a thermal spray process to reduce the oxidation of particle stream is not a new concept. Nevertheless the actual use of this idea is not very widely used in practice, due to some problems arising. In this paper the results of the study performed to optimize two shrouding devices for thermal spray are presented. Gas flows inside the device and in between its outlet and the target were modeled by Computational Fluid Dynamics both for an arc-wire and a plasma system. To validate the modeling methodology measurements were performed of the oxygen content using a gas sampling probe and a paramagnetic O 2 analyzer. A good agreement between calculated and measured O 2 values was obtained. Modeling results in different conditions could suggest the best shroud configuration and shielding gas flows necessary to reduce the oxygen content around the particle stream at very low values. Coatings with very low defect contents can now be produced.

Oxidation of HVOF sprayed 316L stainless steel coatings was studied experimentally. Oxygen content in the sprayed coatings was analyzed and its dependence on several spray parameters such as spraying distance, mixture ratio of fuel to oxygen, and composition of atmospheric gas on the substrate was studied. The oxygen content in the original powder was about 0.03 wt%, which typically increased to 0.3 % in the HVOF sprayed coatings under the standard spraying conditions. Reduction of spray distance significantly increased the oxygen level due to the excessive heating of substrates by the flame. The sprayed deposits were analyzed by XRD and the oxides within the coatings were identified as magnetite Fe 3 O 4 or chromite FeCr 2 O 4 . By using a nitrogen-gas shield attached to the substrate, it was revealed that the oxidation during flight is around 0.2 wt%. Control of oxidation by attaching a gas shroud to the HVOF nozzle has been attempted and oxygen content below 0.15 % has been achieved so far while maintaining deposition efficiency over 73 %.

The super-elasticity behavior of a NiTi-shape memory alloy (SMA) is very promising regarding cavitation resistance. The need of high vacuum conditions by thermal spraying processes, to avoid oxidation, has always been and still is the main obstacle for the widespread of NiTi as a coating material. This work deals with studying the effect of the different shroud concepts on the obtained oxide content and the phases of the obtained twin wire arc sprayed (TWAS) coatings. The concepts include the use of argon as a shield in gas shroud (GS) as well as the use of an extended air cap attachment as a massive shroud (MS). The use of MS-concept led to a significant decrease in oxide content and therefore was selected to spray pre-alloyed NiTi-SMA wires. The standoff distance between the MS-outlet and the substrate surface shows also an effect on the obtained phases and thus on the behavior of the obtained coatings. At lower standoff distance a pseudo-elastic behavior was obtained and therefore a higher cavitation and wear resistance. The use of argon as atomization and shield gas with a massive shroud could be a cost-effective alternative for vacuum process in case of spraying NiTi-SMA pre-alloyed feedstock materials.

The oxidation of a NiCr bond coat during air plasma spraying was controlled by designing a gas shroud system that attached to the plasma torch nozzle. Two nozzles, termed as “normal” and “high speed” nozzles examined the effect of nozzle internal design on the microstructure and phase structure of coatings. X-ray diffraction and SEM morphologies showed that the shroud system reduced the oxidation of NiCr particles during the spray process. Compared with conventional air plasma spraying, the argon gas shroud reduced the coating hardness because the volume fraction of partially melted particles increased. The high speed nozzle reduced the oxidation and hardness of NiCr coatings due to the increase of partially melted particles in the coatings.

Various approaches are presented in this paper to adapt conventional twin wire arc spraying (TWAS) for the production of smooth and finely structured coatings. Higher particle velocities were achieved by modifying spraying nozzle geometry. New geometries that incorporate a Laval shape produced the highest particle velocities while also eliminating overspray and extending the high-velocity region. This led to a more focused spraying plume and a change in optimal spraying distance, which was found to be more than 200 mm based on coating roughness. Some of the new nozzles exhibited evidence of particle deposition on the inner walls, which can restrict plume flow if not addressed. The problem is related to the position of the Laval throat in the spray plume as well as changes in gas pressure.

Plasma jets for thermal spraying are strongly affected in a negative sense by the interaction with the relatively static surrounding atmosphere, particularly at atmospheric spray conditions. Turbulences at the jet fringes arise resulting in entrained cold gas, in slowing and cooling down of the jet and in causing eventually its disintegration. All means suppressing or delaying this phenomenon, called cold gas entrainment, help to improve the interaction of plasma and spray material and hence lead to better product quality and higher deposition efficiency of the process. To observe the cold gas entrainment, to investigate the thermal and kinetic properties of DC plasma jets at different operating conditions and to study the effect of plasma source and powder injection modifications a diagnostic equipment with Schlieren optics, enthalpy probe and mass spectrometry was installed. By modification of the internal and external anode nozzle contours and also by application of a shroud nozzle around the plasma jet exit encouraging results with reduced penetration of cold ambient air into the jet could be obtained.

Previous studies have shown that gas shrouding is an effective means for controlling oxidation during HVOF spraying. In this present work, the authors attach a gas shroud to an oxyfuel torch with a longer barrel to further investigate the correlation between the state of HVOF sprayed particles and the density and oxygen content of the resulting layers. It is shown that with gas shielding, extended barrel length, and optimized spraying parameters, it is possible to accelerate powder particles to a velocity of over 750 m/sec with maintaining a high molten fraction, thereby producing very dense (zero porosity) stainless steel layers with oxygen contents less than 0.2% by weight. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

Properties of MCrAlY coatings obtained by High Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) thermal spray process operated in a standard configuration were compared with those obtained using a gas shroud attachment to the HVOF gun. Our measurements show that the attached gas (nitrogen) shroud nozzle considerably reduces the oxygen content in the coating without an appreciable change in the microstructure. The particle temperatures were decreased by an average of 100 °C at a standoff distance of 0.275 m (11 inches). There was also a large reduction in the particle velocity at this distance. Both these effects were related to the excessive amount of nitrogen used for shrouding.

Spherical CoNiCrAlY powders (~45 + 5 μm) were sprayed using a Jet Kote II HVOF gun working with propane and oxygen. The coatings sprayed on two base materials: Inconel 625 (Ni base) and MarM 509 (Co base) were between 1,6 and 3 mm thick. The aim of the study was to examine the adherence problems in relation with this thickness and the imposed thermal cycles (thermal diffusion treatment and aluminizing). The studied parameters were the expansion coefficients evolution before and after the different treatments and the residual stresses between coating and substrate measured by incremental hole dilling method.

For 6 years, we have developed corrosion resistant coatings for the marine structural steels by using a thermal spray technique. Such a coating requires primarily impermeability and secondarily cleanliness. In order to make denser and highly corrosion resistant coatings, we selected spray materials and improved fabrication processes. In addition, some new methods were designed to evaluate the sprayed particle’s state and coating properties with high accuracy and sensitivity. An inert gas shroud system was attached with the commercial HVOF apparatus and this attachment enabled inflight spray particles to be accelerated over 750 m·s-1 and simultaneously to avoid to be oxidized. The coating of HastelloyC nickel base alloy by this process had zero through porosity and 0.2 mass% of oxygen content, leading to be comparable to the bulk material of HastelloyC in terms of corrosion resistance. This coating, formed on steel, demonstrated an excellent protective performance over 10 months in the marine exposure test.

This paper presents a new strategy for improving the quality of HVOF sprayed coatings as well as the deposition efficiency of the process. The highly turbulent expanding gas jet is stabilized and focused with the aid of a helical gas shroud. The effect of the design modification is demonstrated by numerical calculations and through the use of a prototype torch.

Jets produced in conventional atmospheric plasma spraying are inevitably heterogeneous due to the mechanics of a rapid gas flow entering a stagnant environment. The resulting high air content together with considerable velocity and temperature variations will adversely affect the quality of coatings. This paper applies a CFD code to simulate the effect of a solid shield and a gas shroud on the characteristics of a plasma jet. The computational results show that the geometry and gas flow rates of the shrouding systems have an important influence on the quality of the plasma flow. The work shows that shrouding can substantially reduce the entrained air content and the temperature and velocity gradients in the jet. The model is applied to predict the optimum shrouding conditions for plasma spraying.

Thermal plasma jets interact intensively with the surrounding atmosphere. This interaction leads to strong changes of the plasma jet properties affecting the resulting products. Modification of the nozzle parameters and conditions at the exit of the torch helps to vary and better control the process of plasma jet and ambient air interaction. In the present study, the DC arc plasma torch was equipped with a modified anode nozzle (M2.5) and a surrounding shroud at the jet exit. The process of air entrainment was investigated when shroud gas was supplied producing a protecting envelope to reduce the air entrainment. Schlieren photography and the enthalpy probe with the mass spectrometer were applied to study the influence on plasma jet behavior. The effect of shroud nozzle geometry as well as the effect of the shroud gas flow rate was investigated. Likewise, influence of gas shrouding on the resulting coatings was studied.

The shielding controlled plasma spraying process is investigated to improve corrosion resistance of the metal surface. In this process, a shielding nozzle that covers just the spraying area is attached in front of the tip of a commercial plasma spray gun nozzle, and the environment surrounding the plasma jet is controlled by nitrogen flow. As the oxygen concentration in the shielding nozzle is maintained as low as 0.5%, the metal oxide contents in volume of CoNiCrAlY coating and the porosity of the coating reduced to 0.2% and 0.3% respectively under optimal spray particle size. The corrosion potential of CoNiCrAlY coating sprayed by this process in an acid solution including chloride ions is staying about -150 mV for 1000 hours, and no rust is observed during this test. On the other hand, that of the coating sprayed by atmospheric plasma spraying process changes from about -300 mV to about -500mV for 1000 hours, and the rust comes to the surface of the coating after 10 hours. Therefore the developed shielding controlled plasma spraying process is concluded to improve the corrosion of the metal.

Until now the use of thermal sprayed metallic coatings for wet corrosion protection is limited to applications where the coating (Al-alloys, Zn-alloys and their mixtures) acts as an anode to protect the substrate or special cases, where thick cold sprayed metallic layers give good results. Other atmospheric cold sprayed layers made of corrosion resistant Ni, Co, Cu or Fe base alloys have their limitations due to the process related discontinuities like pores and oxide films. In more aggressive environments thermal sprayed and fused layers made of so called self-fluxing Ni and Co based alloys are commonly applied. Also in some applications the use of specially designed gas shrouds or of spraying techniques running in inert gas atmospheres or vacuum can yield protective coating solutions. However, these techniques have high investment or service costs or the size of the parts to be coated is restricted. Recent developments in HVOF-spraying open new possibilities in applying cold sprayed coatings on site with good corrosion resistance. The aim of this paper is on one hand to give a comparative overview about the wet corrosion behaviour of thermally sprayed metallic coatings using different spraying techniques related to the performance of the corresponding bulk materials and on the other hand to demonstrate the potential of a new generation of coatings to protect or repair structures exposed to aggressive environments. Keywords: corrosion behavior, thermal sprayed metallic coatings, cermet coatings HVOF, HVIF, PTAW.

Twelve commercially available WC-Co powders with different average carbide sizes (0.2, 2, and 6 µm) and cobalt contents (8, 12, 17 and 25 wt.%) were sprayed on carbon steel substrates using High Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) spraying Characterization of the coatings showed that the average carbide sizes and carbide volume contents in the coatings were lower than those of feedstock powders. Hardness and fracture toughness of the coatings were investigated using indentation techniques. Young’s modulus was measured by an ultrasonic technique. The hardness and Young’s modulus decreased with increasing cobalt content, while fracture toughness slightly increased. The effect of carbide size on the hardness showed no specific trend. These behaviors were discussed with the help of microstructure observations of the coatings by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and chemical analysis. Using an improved HVOF process with a gas shroud could result in less decomposition of the powder and higher fracture toughness.

A particle laden flow in an HVOF torch is analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The torch is similar to the DJ Metco torch with a converging-diverging (de Laval) nozzle, where particles are injected through the center together with nitrogen as a carrier gas. The Eulerian formulation is used for the gas flow whereas the particle motion is described by using the Lagrangian formulation. The flow turbulence is modeled via k-e model with standard wall functions. For modeling the combustion process in the torch, a multi-reaction Eddy-Dissipation Model (EDM) is employed. The computational domain comprised the torch itself and the region outside the torch where our attention is mainly focused. The computations are performed for the torch with and without the gas shroud attachment. The results showed that the presence of the shroud affected to some degree the flow and temperature fields of the main gas and the particle stream, while at the same time, significantly reducing the entrainment of ambient air into the main stream as shown by the lower oxygen concentrations. The results of the numerical computations are compared with experimental results for the same operating conditions and the agreement is found to be good.

During heat treatment of Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr thermal spray coatings, regions of carbide dissolution have been observed to precipitate very small grains that grow into finely structured carbide networks. This study investigates the potential of developing tailored submicron carbide composites based on that process. The approach taken is to spray a conventional Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr powder under high-power plasma conditions to generate a supersaturated solid solution of Ni-Cr-C from which carbides could be precipitated via heat treatment. Preliminary trials assessed the effect of a broad range of plasma parameters to determine what conditions generate the greatest carbide dissolution with the lowest carbon loss. Follow-up trials investigated the most promising parameters in more detail to determine the effect of spray distance, with and without shrouding, on carbon loss and carbide dissolution. This paper presents the results from one of these trials in which an Ar-H 2 plasma was sprayed with a low-velocity nozzle. Gas shrouding had a minimal effect on carbide dissolution but was effective in reducing air entrainment in the plasma and the degree of decarburization.