Experimental studies of the subsonic combustion process have been conducted in order to determine the quality and economics of polyester, epoxy, urethane, and hybrid polyester-epoxy coatings. Thermally sprayed polymer coatings are of interest to several industries for anti-corrosion applications, including the infrastructural, chemical, automotive, and aircraft industries. Classical experiments were conducted, from which a substantial range of thermal processing conditions and their effect on the resultant coating were obtained. The coatings were characterized and evaluated by a number of techniques, including Knoop microhardness tests, optical metallography, image analysis, and bond strength. Characterization of the coatings yielded thickness, bond strength, hardness, and porosity.

Statistical design-of-experiment studies of the thermal spraying of polymer powders are presented. Studies of the subsonic combustion (i.e., Flame) process were conducted in order to determine the quality and economics of polyester and urethane coatings. Thermally sprayed polymer coatings are of interest to several industries for anticorrosion applications, including the chemical, automotive, and aircraft industries. In this study, the coating design has been optimized for a site-specific application using Taguchi-type fractional-factorial experiments. Optimized coating designs are presented for the two powder systems. A substantial range of thermal processing conditions and their effect on the resultant polymer coatings is presented. The coatings were characterized by optical metallography, hardness testing, tensile testing, and compositional analysis. Characterization of the coatings yielded the thickness, bond strength, Knoop microhardness, roughness, deposition efficiency, and porosity. Confirmation testing was accomplished to verify the coating designs.

Thermal spray committee of Japan Association of Corrosion Control (JACC) has been conducting a corrosion test of thermal sprayed Zn, Al and Zn-Al coatings at coastal area since 1985. Twelve kinds of sprayed coating were deposited onto steel pipe by arc- and flame-spraying at varied thickness and subjected to various post-spray treatment. The samples were set vertically into the seawater at a port 80 km south from Tokyo. Corrosion performance were inspected annually by recording the appearance and coatings' thickness at sea air-, splash- and tidal-zones. No significant changes were observed for five years exposure. After 7 years, however, Zn coatings with and without sealing started to suffer degradation in the immersed portion. Contrary to this, Al and Zn-Al coatings still exhibit superb corrosion performance. The test will be continued till 2001 to finish a 15 years field test. This paper reports the summary of corrosion performance of sprayed coating during the first 10 year period.

Low-velocity oxyfuel-spray and arc-spray coatings of Zn, Zn-Al, Al, and various Al-Si and Al-Mg alloys were tested in immersion and salt-spray conditions with artificial sea water for up to 6,000 hours. Coatings were tested as-sprayed or sealed with fluorocarbon, epoxy or silicone sealants. Comparison and overview of coatings recommended by international and Japanese standards are considered. Coatings Al 99.8 outperformed Zn 99.9 and Zn-13A1 ones while Al-(2.5~5.2)Mg and Al-(5~6)Si showed better corrosion resistance than Al 99.8 coatings. The silicone sealant offered better resistance than fluorocarbon and epoxy organic sealants.

This study examines stainless steel and Hastelloy C coatings sprayed using commercial HVOF equipment. Porosity and oxygen content have been measured under various spray conditions and laboratory corrosion tests have been carried out using electrochemical techniques. The report first summarizes major results obtained in the laboratory evaluation, then presents the results of marine exposure testing for up to six months. It concludes with detailed comparisons between the two. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

The thermal spray committee of the Japan Association of Corrosion Control (JACC) has been conducting a marine corrosion test of thermal sprayed Zn, Al and Zn-Al coatings since 1985. Twelve kinds of sprayed coating were deposited onto steel pipes by arc- and flame-spraying to varied thickness and subjected to various post-spray treatments. The samples were set vertically into seawater at a port 80 km south from Tokyo. Corrosion performance of these coatings has been inspected annually by recording the appearance and coatings’ thickness at sea air-, splash- and tidal-zones. No significant changes were observed for five years exposure. After 7 years, however, Zn coatings with and without sealing started to suffer degradation in the immersed portion. Contrary to this, Al and Zn-Al coatings still exhibit superb corrosion performance. The test will continue till 2006 to complete the test period of 20 years. In order to place the test into a proper perspective, we also conducted a survey on the corrosion prevention by thermal spray technology in 2001, collecting more than 170 published reports and asking experts to contribute reviews on various aspects of the technology. This paper first describes several topics from the survey report to explain the past and the present situation of thermal spraying for corrosion prevention in Japan. Then, the corrosion performance of sprayed coatings in the exposure test during 15 years will be summarized.

It is pointed out that properties corresponding to 3 to 5 % of gross domestic products are lost by corrosion in every year in advanced countries. Corrosion including oxidation is still one of the biggest technical problems which human beings are facing. The application of thermal spray coatings is one of the strongest weapons to prevent corrosion of steel and iron structures. The thermal spray coatings, however, are not panaceas to prevent corrosion. They involve many problems and it is important to understand the proper ways to apply the thermal spray coatings for corrosion resistance. In this paper, a state-of-the-art review on the science and technology against corrosion, oxidation and hot corrosion by the thermal spray coatings is presented.

Polymeric coatings manufactured by thermal spray processes exhibit variable mechanical and adhesion properties that depend on their exact processing schedules. One important advantage of these coatings is that they can be readily repaired by re-spraying any delaminated or otherwise defective regions. In some instances the repaired region exhibits better mechanical attributes than the original coating. In this study the repairability of several classes of polymeric and polymer-ceramic composite coatings were investigated with a focus on the interfacial adhesion properties. The coatings include those of monolayer and bilayer ethylene methacrylic acid (EMAA), and CaCO 3 -EMAA composites. The coating thickness did not influence the interfacial adhesive strength between the coating and substrate; while a higher preheat temperature produced a greater interfacial cohesion for the monolayer coating on a metal substrate. The substrate preheat temperature played a dominant role concerning the peel strength of the coating. Greater peel strengths were achieved between polymers, at least twofold greater than that between the polymer and the steel substrate when the pre-heat temperature was greater than the melting point of the polymer. The peel strength of the composite coating decreased with filler content; both on the steel substrate and on a previously sprayed polymer coating. On the basis of these observations, the adhesion mechanism between polymers was explained with a model that relied on the formation of welding points.

Several polymeric coatings, including flame sprayed polyethylene (PE), were evaluated for use in parts of natural gas pipelines. The components of interest were for instance large valves, T-joints, weld joints of pipes and pipe bends. More than 30 different coatings were selected to laboratory scale testing and evaluation. After first preliminary tests, the most potential coatings were selected further for more detailed and long term laboratory scale studies. After these tests were finished, one coating concept, i.e. fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) + flame sprayed PE, was prepared on a small natural gas valve body for demonstration purposes. Besides this coating concept, also some other coatings, e.g. liquid epoxy + flame sprayed PE and some polyurethane coatings were found to be potential coatings for the application. The test methods and results are presented in this paper.