Thermal spraying (APS and HVOF) of an agglomerated nanostructured powder, based on the composition of a commercial martensitic steel, is introduced. The nanostructure of the produced powder is examined by means of microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The influence of the two different processes on crucial properties such as porosity, microhardness, adhesion, and wear resistance is studied. High wear resistance is noted for both coatings. The HVOF coating, especially, showed better wear performance in comparison with the APS coating and the bulk martensitic steel. The superiority of the HVOF coating over the APS coating regarding the aforementioned properties is attributed to a higher retention of the nanostructure of the starting powder, higher peening and relatively low oxidation.

Nanostructured and conventional Al 2 O 3 powders have been plasma sprayed, under the same parameters, to produce coatings on 304 stainless steel. The nanopowder was fabricated by mechanical attrition techniques and composed of agglomerates of nanoparticles, whereas the conventional powder consisted of solid granules. In order to maintain the beneficial effect of the nanostructure in the final coating, a fraction of the powder’s nanostructure should be retained in the coating after spraying. Dissimilarities were observed between the two types of coating, regarding porosity, roughness, deposition efficiency and α-Al 2 O 3 to γ-Al 2 O 3 proportions, which are related with the different percentages of semimolten particles in the coatings. The nanocoatings retained a higher percentage of semimolten particles than the conventional coatings, owing to the higher porosity of the nanoparticle agglomerates, as compared to the conventional solid granules. The molten part of both conventional and nanostructured coatings consisted of γ-Al 2 O 3 of columnar morphology. In order to investigate the mechanism of the melting front advance into the particle interior during their presence in the plasma stream, the particles were sprayed directly into distilled water. The nanoparticles mainly formed hollow spheres, whereas the conventional particles mainly formed compact spheres. The internal porosity of the solidified nanoparticle agglomerates, which affected the overall coating porosity, was linked to the hollow sphere phenomenon.

WC-12Co coatings (with and without Ni-5Al bond coats) as well as Ni-5Al coatings were deposited on Al 7075 by HVOF spraying. The corrosion behaviour of the coatings was investigated by salt spray testing for 40 days, followed by potentiodynamic tests in a 3.5% aqueous NaCl solution, at 25, 35 and 45°C.The thicker duplex coatings (500µm) were not susceptible to pit corrosion, at any temperature. A small fraction of the thinner duplex coatings (260µm) underwent localized corrosion, only at 45°C. Ni-5Al and a small fraction of WC-12Co single coatings showed low susceptibility to pit corrosion which increased with temperature increasing and thickness decreasing. The coating system Ni-5Al/WC-12Co exhibited the highest resistance to general corrosion, which was independent of the thickness at the two thicknesses tested.