Cold gas dynamic spraying (CGDS) can be used to deposit oxygen sensitive materials, such as titanium, without significant chemical degradation of the powder and with minimal heating of the substrate. The process is thus believed to have potential for the deposition of corrosion resistant barrier coatings. However, to be effective a barrier coating must not allow ingress of a corrosive liquid and hence must have minimal interconnected porosity. Thus the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of processing, including a post-spray annealing treatment, on the deposit meso- and microstructures and corrosion behavior. Commercially pure titanium powder was deposited using pre-heated nitrogen as main and powder carrier gas using a CGT Kinetiks 4000 system to produce coatings on stainless steel. Selected coatings were debonded from the substrate, and the resultant free standing deposits heat treated at 1050° C in vacuum for 60 minutes. Changes in microhardness were measured and correlated with microstructural changes. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), helium pycnometry and mercury porosimetry were all employed to examine the microstructural characteristics of coatings and free standing deposits, before and after heat treatment. Their corrosion performance was also investigated using potentiodynamic polarization tests in 3.5 wt% NaCl. The influences of heat treatment and corrosion behavior will be analyzed and discussed in terms of pores structure evolution and microstructural changes.

This paper reports on the development of NiZn-ferrite powders and their deposition by air plasma and high-velocity oxyfuel spraying. The microstructure and phase composition of the powders and coatings are analyzed and the influence of process parameters on coating development is assessed for sprayed layers up to 500 μm thick. Particular attention is paid to the degradation of the spinel crystal structure, the formation of iron oxide phases, and elemental loss during spraying. The results show that a degree of ferrite decomposition occurs with the loss of zinc and formation of wüstite and that zinc loss is very dependent on the surface-to-volume ratio of the powder.

The deposition of titanium on a titanium alloy substrate is being examined for potential use as a surface treatment for medical prostheses. A Ti6Al4V alloy was coated with pure titanium by cold gas dynamic spraying (CGDS). Coatings were deposited onto samples with two different surface preparation methods (as-received and grit blasted). The fatigue life of the as-received and grit blasted materials, both before and following coating, was measured with a rotating-bend fatigue rig. An 18% reduction in fatigue life was observed following the application of the coating to the as-received substrate, but no significant reduction was observed on its application to the grit blasted substrate. The reduction in fatigue life has been related to the substrate-coating interface properties and residual stress states.

High-temperature nickel-based superalloys such as 1N718 are widely used in gas turbine components as they remain stable at operating temperatures up to ~750°C. There is now a growing interest in the repair and refurbishment of such components using spray deposition techniques. Although many investigations have been carried out to study the effect of conventional processing on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 1N718, much less attention has been given to the alloy when sprayed to form a coating. The purpose of the present study was to investigate and compare 1N718 deposits produced by HVOF spraying and cold gas spray deposition. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were employed to examine the microstructural evolution of the coatings and to compare the deposition behaviour of the two different processes. Particular attention was paid to porosity, oxide content and the formation of secondary intermetallic phases. Coating microhardness and bond strength were also measured. Results will be presented and discussed in the context of the different thermal histories of the powder particles in the two processes.

Al-Sn plain bearings for automotive applications traditionally comprise a multilayer structure. Conventionally, bearing manufacturing involves casting the Al-Sn alloy and roll¬bonding to a steel backing strip. Recently, high velocity oxy- fuel thermal spraying has been employed as a novel alternative manufacturing route. The present project extends previous work on ternary Al-Sn- Cu alloys to quaternary systems, which contain specific additions for potentially enhanced properties. Two alloys were studied in detail, namely Al-20wt.%Sn-lwt.%Cu-2wt.%Ni and Al-20wt.%Sn-lwt.%Cu-7wt.%Si. This paper will describe the microstructural evolution of these alloys following HVOF spraying onto steel substrates and subsequent heat treatment. Microstructures of powders and coatings were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and phases identified by X-ray diffraction. Coating microhardnesses were determined in both as-sprayed and heat treated conditions and differences related to the microstructures which developed. Finally, the wear behaviour of the sprayed and heat treated coatings in hot engine oil was measured using an industry standard test and compared with that of conventionally manufactured Al-Sn bearings.

Deposition of copper by cold gas dynamic spraying has attracted much interest in recent years because of the capability to deposit low porosity oxide free coatings. However, it is generally found that as-deposited copper has a significantly greater hardness, and potentially lower ductility, than bulk material. This paper will describe work undertaken to investigate the effect of annealing heat treatments on the structure and mechanical properties of freestanding cold sprayed copper. After de-bonding from substrates these tracks were annealed for one hour at a range of temperatures up to 600 °C. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were all employed to examine the microstructure. The peak widths in XRD were analysed according to the Hall – Williamson method so that changes in grain size and microstrain (i.e. dislocation content) could be quantified. Mechanical behaviour of the deposits was studied by microhardness measurements and tensile testing. The influences of annealing on mechanical properties are rationalised in terms of microstructure evolution and its effect on strengthening and recrystallization mechanisms in metals. The softening behaviour of cold sprayed Cu is explained considering the low stacking fault energy of Cu and the possibility of dynamic recystallization occurring during spraying.

Over the past five years, interest in cold gas dynamic spraying (CGDS) has increased substantially. Considerable effort has been devoted to process development and optimization for low melting point metals such as copper and aluminium. This paper will describe work undertaken to expand the understanding of deposition of titanium by cold spray methods. CGDS deposits have been produced from commercially pure Ti. Using room temperature helium gas, a range of processing conditions, powder size ranges, substrates and substrate preparation methods have been employed to study their impact on deposition of powders. Scanning electron microscopy has been employed to examine deposit microstructures, and microhardness testing of deposits has been conducted. Samples for pull-off bond strength test have been prepared from a number of the more promising sets of parameters and adhesive strengths have been determined. Computational estimates of gas velocity and in-flight particle velocity have been made focusing specifically on the influence that these factors have on the process deposition efficiency. Differences will be discussed in terms of powder feedstock characteristics and the underlying physical and mechanical properties of the powders and substrates.

It is widely known that during high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying of tungsten carbide – cobalt (WC-Co) coatings, decomposition occurs resulting in the formation of W2C and a relatively brittle amorphous binder phase (along with other carbides and even metallic tungsten). Decomposition has generally been seen to be deleterious to the wear resistance of these coatings and, as such, there have been moves to reduce it. Since decomposition during spraying initiates with WC dissolution into the molten binder phase, strategies for its minimization have been based on reduction of particle temperatures and exposure times during spraying. Moves in spraying from gas-fuelled systems to liquid-fuelled systems have contributed towards these goals. This paper examines microstructural features and wear behaviour of WC-Co coatings deposited with both a liquid-fuelled and a gas-fuelled system. Contrary to expectation, it was found that the wear rate of the liquid-fuel sprayed coating was five to ten times higher than that of the gas-fuel sprayed coating. It was shown that whilst the degree of decomposition was limited during spraying with a liquid-fuelled system, the solid core of WC-Co suffers significant mechanical damage on impact as it is deposited, resulting in carbide fracture and size reduction and thus to the low observed wear resistance.

In the Cold Gas Dynamic Spray (CGDS) process, coatings are deposited by the virtue of the high particle velocity achieved by the use of converging-diverging (de Laval) nozzle along with suitable particle characteristics and process parameters. In this study copper coatings were deposited on aluminium substrates using helium as the accelerating gas. The influence of the CGDS conditions, primarily driving gas temperature and pressure, on the nature of the deposited coatings and the deposition efficiency of the process were investigated. The results indicate that it is possible to deposit copper coatings at a wide range of process conditions, with successful deposition being observed with the driving gas at room temperature and 11 bar pressure (a condition where the nozzle is still choked). However, the nature of the coatings is strongly dependent upon the processing conditions. With room temperature driving gas, an increase in pressure lead to an increase in deposition efficiency, and increase in substrate deformation and an increase in microhardness in the deposit due to higher levels of work hardening. The use of driving gas at temperatures as low as 473 K resulted in recrystallisation in the deposit and a decrease in tendency to debond due to stress relief during recrystallisation. Recrystallisation also manifested itself in reduced hardness. The sensitivity of the recrystallisation conditions to the traverse speed of the jet over the substrate indicated that these processes are initiated by the impingement of the hot gas jet onto the deposit following deposition and not by changes in velocity or temperature of the particles upon impact.

Aluminium powder of 99.7wt% purity and in the nominal particle size range –75+15µm has been sprayed onto a range of substrates by cold gas dynamic spraying (cold spraying). The substrates examined include metals with a range of hardness, polymers and ceramics. The substrate surfaces had very low roughness before deposition of aluminium in an attempt to separate effects of mechanical bonding from other forms of bonding. The cross-sectional area of a single track of aluminium sprayed onto the substrate was taken as a measure of the ease of initiation of deposition, assuming that once a coating had begun to deposit onto a substrate, its growth would occur at a constant rate regardless of substrate type. It has been shown that initiation of deposition depends critically upon substrate type. For metals where initiation was not easy, then small aluminium particles were seen to be deposited preferentially to large ones (due to their higher impact velocities); these may have acted as an interlayer to promote further building of the coating. A number of phenomena have been observed following spraying onto various substrates, such as substrate melting, substrate and particle deformation and evidence for the formation of a metal-jet (akin to that seen in explosive welding). Such phenomena have been related to the processes occurring during impact of the particles on the substrate. Generally, initiation of aluminium deposition was seen to be poor for non-metallic materials (where no metallic bonding between the particle and substrate was possible) and for very soft metals (in the case of tin, melting of the substrate was observed). Metallic substrates harder than the aluminium particles generally promoted deposition, although deposition onto aluminium alloy was difficult due to the presence of a tenacious oxide layer. Initiation was seen to be rapid on hard metallic substrates, even when deformation of the substrate was not visible.

This work reports research concerning the production of powder, suitable for reactive HVOF spraying, produced by mechanically alloying Ni(Cr), Ti and C elemental powder constituents. Powder mixing was achieved using a high-energy Uni-Ball II Mill and optimisation of the milling parameters are reported. The composition of the powder, at 50wt.%NiCr-40wt.%Ti-10wt.%C, was such that the application of heat has the potential to cause a SHS (Self propagating High Temperature Synthesis) reaction to take place. The utilisation of SHS reactions to produce TiC particles within metallic matrices is well known in bulk systems. However, this work describes carrying out this reaction in individual powder particles on exposure to the high temperature within the HVOF gun. The powder having undergone the SHS reaction during the spray process was deposited onto mild steel substrates to form a dense, coherent coating. The coatings thus formed were shown to contain nanoscale TiC in a Ni(Cr) matrix, indicating a SHS reaction had taken place. This TiC is much finer than that produced in conventional SHS reactions, which is typically ~5ìm. The percentage of TiC formed, and retained in the coating, was lower than expected from the constituent proportions and explanations for this observation are proposed. The microstructure of the coating is described and compared with a Ni(Cr)-TiC cermet coating sprayed using conventional SHS powder generated from reacted compacts which were crushed, sieved and classified to give sprayable feedstock powder.

This research examined the use of 4-point bend testing, with in-situ acoustic emission analysis, for the characterization of the deformation of WC-Co coatings sprayed by the high-velocity oxy-fuel method. Coatings were deposited from WC- 17wt.%Co powders using a Praxair JP5000 system. Two sets of gun operating parameters were employed to produce coatings with distinctly different structures. In the present studies the cracking behaviour of the coatings was investigated through analysis of the acoustic emission (AE) data. In particular, AE data recorded has shown clear differences between the two coating types, in terms of the critical strain level and amount of energy released during cracking. The critical strain levels for the different coatings were 0.32% and 0.6% respectively. Analysis of the coatings by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction has allowed correlations to be made between the principle microstructural features of the coatings and the mechanical behaviour under bending. The AE responses for these cermet coatings were highly reproducible.

A high velocity oxy-fuel spraying system using liquid fuel (HVOLF) has produced Stellite 6 (CoCrWC) and NiCoCrAlY coatings from gas atomised powders of both alloys. Comparative coatings were prepared by weld 0verlay (Stellite 6) and vacuum plasma spraying (VPS) of NiCoCrAlY. The original powders and coatings were characterised by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The presence or absence of cored dendritic microstructures in etched surfaces was used to interpret the degree of melting which took place during spraying, i.e. >80% in VPS and <20% in HVOLF. Low levels of oxide were formed in HVOLF coatings due to the reduced level of thermal transfer during the short heating cycle involved in spraying. For the same reason less melting occurred which permitted sufficient plastic deformation of the solid fraction to occur, reducing voidage between particles and then allowing the liquid fraction to weld them together. This pattern of short cycle heating with both NiCoCrAlY and Stellite 6 particles influenced second phase formation. In NiCoCrAlY coatings the β (Co Ni Al) phase remained as relatively coarse precipitates in the as - sprayed condition whilst in Stellite 6 little carbide eutectic formed. HVOLF spraying can produce coatings with different hardness values when compared with VPS coatings and weld overlays. This may widen the range of coating applications as well as reduce costs.

This paper examines the effect of spraying conditions and WC grain size on the wear behavior of WC-Co coatings. Two powders, one with a fine grain fraction and one with a more conventional grain fraction, were applied using liquid and gas HVOF systems. All coatings were subjected to sliding wear tests against an aluminum oxide ball. A sintered WC-Co composite was also tested for comparison. The sintered composite structure (cermet) exhibited the highest wear resistance, while the conventional powder sprayed by means of a gas-operated burner produced the best coating. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

A number of studies have examined the influence of process parameters on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of metallic coatings produced by gas-fuel HVOF spraying, but much less is known about the coatings produced by liquid-fuel HVOF processes. The aim of this study is to investigate the corrosion behavior and microstructure of nickel and cobalt alloys deposited by both methods and show how it compares with that of various superalloys. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

It has been shown that high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray coatings with good wear resistance can be produced from Ni(Cr)-TiC powders manufactured by self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) reactions. In the present work the process was expanded to include additions of Mo and W with the objective of modifying the carbide phase in an attempt to increase the wear resistance further. The effect of changing the matrix, i.e. substituting Fe for Ni, and changing the ceramic phase from TiC to TiB 2 was also examined. The feedstock powder and resultant coatings are characterised in terms of x-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy while the coating properties are measured by microhardness and dry sand rubber wheel (DSRW) abrasive wear testing. The results show that Fe(Cr)-TiB 2 and Ni(Cr)-(W, Ti)C coatings have wear rates comparable to that of conventional Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr coatings produced from sintered and crushed powder, but further improvements are needed to achieve the wear resistance of WC-Co coatings.

In this paper, the production of NiCr-TiC powder by SHS, suitable for HVOF spraying, is discussed together with results on the microstructure and coating properties. Compacts for SHS were prepared by mixing elemental Ti and C with pre-alloyed Ni-20wt.% Cr powder to give an overall composition of 35wt.% NiCr and 65wt.% TiC. These were then ignited and a self-sustaining reaction proceeded to completion. Reacted compacts were crushed, sieved, and classified to give feedstock powders in size ranges of 10-45 µm and 45-75 µm. All powder was characterized prior to spraying based on particle size distribution, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS). Thermal spraying was performed using both H2 and C3H6 as fuel gases in a UTP/Miller Thermal HVOF system. The resulting coatings were characterized by SEM and XRD analysis, and the microstructures correlated with powder size and spray conditions. Abrasive wear was determined by a modified 'dry sand rubber wheel' (DSRW) test and wear rates were measured. It has been found that wear rates comparable to those of HVOF sprayed WC-17wt% Co coatings can be achieved.

Dilute aluminium alloys with additions of tin and indium when deposited by thermal spraying no longer behave as barrier coatings but demonstrate sacrificial corrosion properties when they exist on corrodible substrates. The degree to which the sacrificial attack occurs depends upon the spraying conditions and the tin or indium contents of the coating. The form in which the tin and/or indium exists in these coatings has not been specified but both elements are known to be sparingly soluble in aluminium. A series of experiments have been carried out using Al-12wt%Sn alloy powder as a feedstock for high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying on to a steel substrate. The as-sprayed coatings were highly reactive in distilled water and dissolved in a few minutes. Heat-treatment of the coatings at 450°C for increasing amounts of time up to 20 hours reduced the reactivity to water but did not influence the corrosion rate in 0.1M NaCl solution. SEM/TEM observations on the coating provided evidence of the coarsening of tin particles from 15nm (as sprayed) to 0.5-2µm (as heat-treated). A second alloy with a copper addition i.e. Al-12wt%Sn-1wt%Cu was also sprayed to form coatings. The copper addition prevented reaction in water but did not influence the high corrosion rate of the as-sprayed coating in 0.1M NaCl. Heat treatment at 450°C reduced the corrosion rate and allowed passive films to form over limited ranges of electrode potential. The size and distribution of the tin phase was different in the copper containing coatings and this influenced the corrosion rate.

The corrosion characteristics of two bespoke Ni-Cr-Mo-B alloy powders sprayed by the high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) process have been studied using potentiodynamic and potentiostatic corrosion analysis in 0.5M H2SO4. The deposits have also been microstructurally characterised using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (utilising both secondary electron (SE) and backscattered electron (BE) modes), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results from the microstructural examination of the two alloys have revealed a predominantly amorphous/nanocrystalline (fcc) matrix containing submicron boride precipitates as well as regions of martensitically transformed laths. Apparent recrystallisation of the amorphous matrix has also been observed in the form of cellular crystals with an fcc structure. The oxide stringers observed at splat boundaries were found to be columnar grained α-Cr 2 O 3 , though regions of the spinel oxide NiCr 2 O 4 with a globular morphology were also observed. The coatings of the two alloys exhibited comparable resistance to corrosion in 0.5M H 2 SO 4 , as revealed by potentiodynamic tests. They both had rest potentials approximately equal to -300mV(SCE) and passive region current densities of around 1mAcm-2. Microstructural examination of samples tested potentiostatically revealed the prevalence of degradation at splat boundaries, especially those where significant oxidation of the deposit had occurred.

Two boron-rich Fe/Cr based gas atomised powders (Armacor M and Armacor C) have been thermally sprayed using the HVOF process and the resultant deposits subsequently characterised, using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), plan view transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and microhardness measurements. The wear and corrosion characteristics of the two alloy coatings have also been investigated by three body abrasive wear (utilising cross-sectional TEM to examine the worn surfaces) and potentiodynamic corrosion testing respectively. Results from microstructural analysis of the as-sprayed deposits revealed the presence of small chromium-iron boride precipitates within a predominantly amorphous matrix in the Fe-based Armacor M coating. The Fe-Cr-based Armacor C coating, however, consisted mainly of regions of nano- and microcrystalline material interspersed with chromium boride precipitation. Iron-chromium oxides have been observed within both of the alloy coatings studied. Both of these alloys exhibit good abrasive wear resistance when compared with other metallic based HVOF sprayed coatings. Both Armacor M and Armacor C also exhibit extensive passivation on exposure to an acidic solution. The wear and corrosion test results are related to the microstructural observations.