This study evaluates the effect of laser texturing on the bonding strength of cylinder bore coatings deposited by plasma transferred wire arc (PTWA) spraying. Experiments were carried out on an AlSi 9 Cu 3 engine block sectioned along a plane through the length of the bores. Cylinder surfaces were laser textured on one side and degreased and grit blasted on the other. Laser power, beam angle, and pulse count were varied to determine their effect on hole morphology and coating adhesion. After surface treatment, the engine block sections were rejoined and the cylinder bores were PTWA sprayed with high carbon steel. Coating samples were examined by SEM and cross-sectional analysis and adhesion tests were conducted. The bonding strength of the coatings on the laser textured portion of the cylinder bore was significantly higher than that of the coatings on grit-blasted surfaces and is shown to vary with laser power, beam angle, and total pulses or impacts per hole.

This study analyzes the mechanical properties of aluminum alloy substrates, in particular, changes in flexural behavior of laser-textured surfaces. Bending tests are conducted on samples treated by laser texturing and by conventional methods such as chemical degreasing and sandblasting. A comparison of flexural strengths caused by the different surface pre-treatments method is presented.

Surface state plays an important role in particle bonding and formation of the first layer of coatings in thermal spraying. From a chemical aspect as well as a mechanical point of view, in all cases, the substrate surface needs to be optimized to promote the adhesion of the sprayed particles and then the coating. In order to control such parameters, several works have been conducted to avoid drawbacks on sensitive materials. This study aims at developing a laser surface texturation before the spraying process to improve the coating adherence. According to the laser parameters, different surface morphologies (hole diameters, surface roughness, hole depth, etc.) can be developed. The surface material morphologies were characterised by SEM and bond strength was evaluated through ASTM C633 pull tests. This approach has been applied on the system Al 2017 / NiAl and demonstrates a high influence of the laser treatment. However, the thermal effect induced during the laser-matter interaction has to be controlled to avoid negative effects of the substrate properties particularly tribological properties. In this case, a study of the effect of the conventional processes and texturing process on the fatigue properties of substrate were studied.

The aim of this paper is to propose a LCA comparison of different surface preparation processes (degreasing + sandblasting, laser ablation and laser texturing) which tend to be used before thermal spray. The SimaPro software was used and the needs of materials, the energy and the corresponding emissions of each process, were converted to impact scores on human health, ecosystems, and resource conservation (fossil and mineral resources) by mean of the Eco-Indicator-99 method. Laser pretreatments processes present a very good environmental behaviour in comparison with degreasing + sandblasting.

Surface treatments are often necessary in thermal spraying to modify the surface properties of materials and then to improve the coating adherence. Several techniques exist. Among them, conventional techniques such as sandblasting, chemical degreasing and some others like high pressure water jet or laser ablation can be implemented. However, whatever the results, some drawbacks can always be listed according to the materials considered (sensitive materials, low adherence level). By this way, new techniques have to be developed. Considering the laser technology, some new treatments can be particularly suitable for surface modifications. Based on the printing technology, laser texturing implementing fiber laser technique combined with a scanner permits to engrave quickly uniform holes on the surface. Applied as a surface treatment before spraying step, the potential of such technique is particularly observed in this study. According to the laser parameters, several points can be analysed such as size (diameter and depth) and the distance between each holes. After surface characterizations by SEM observations and roughness measurements, adhesion tests were then implemented. Considering NiAl coatings sprayed on textured aluminium alloy substrates, some very interesting adherence results (55 MPa) were measured in comparison to the conventional treatments (45 MPa after degreasing and sandblasting) as well as laser ablation technique (34 MPa).