Bronze materials such as Ni-Al-bronze show exceptional performance against corrosion, erosive wear, and cavitation erosion due to their high fatigue strength and resistance to plastic deformation, and are thus used for ship propellers and in turbines, pumps, and other equipment where alternating stresses occur. Usually, the respective parts are cast, but in this study, a number of opportunities are evaluated to apply bronze as a coating to critical part surfaces. Initial experiments with cold gas spraying were promising enough to assess the use of warm spraying, a nitrogen-cooled HVOF process that provides similar particle impact velocities but higher particle temperatures, while still minimizing the effects of oxidation. The formation and performance of warm sprayed Ni-Al-bronze coatings was systematically investigated for different combustion pressures and nitrogen flow rates. Substrate preheating was also used to improve coating adhesion. The coatings obtained show low porosities, high strengths, and in some cases, cavitation resistance similar to that of the bulk material.

In this present work, investigators determine how particle temperature, combustion pressure, and heat treatment affect the porosity, oxide content, and tensile properties of warm-sprayed titanium. Coatings were deposited with nitrogen flow rates ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 m 3 /min and combustion pressures of 1 and 4 MPa. Optimal coating properties were found for specimens formed at a nitrogen flow rate of 0.75 m 3 /min and a combustion pressure of 4 MPa. Post-spray heat treatment was found to improve bonding between deposited particles, significantly increasing the strength and ductility of the titanium coatings.

In this investigation, particle image velocimetry (PIV) and direct imaging are used to measure particle velocities during cold spraying. Four feedstock powders were sprayed, including Ni, WC-Co, carbonyl Fe, and Cr steel. Multiple exposures at 500 ns intervals were used to measure in-flight particle velocities via direct imaging with a high shutter speed camera. Velocimetry measurements were made with a double-pulse laser and a high-resolution camera. With the minimum frame straddling time set to 100 ns, a maximum particle velocity of 1052 m/s was measured.

In this study, particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to measure WC particle velocity during HVAF spraying. Measured velocities are compared with calculated velocities obtained using open source CFD software. Numerical simulation is also used to investigate particle temperatures. With the HVAF gun used, maximum particle velocity is reached around 18 mm from the nozzle exit with a corresponding gas temperature of 1400 K.

A new high-pressure warm spray gun was designed with the aim of increasing particle velocities to 1000 m/s for 30 µm Ti particle at 1000 °C or below. Nozzle geometry and combustion chamber pressure were optimized based on one-dimensional simulations. The flow rate of nitrogen gas injected into a mixing chamber was determined by calculation. The fuel injector was developed experimentally, its geometry optimized to spay small well-diffused droplets of kerosene into a 4 MPa chamber.

This study investigates particle velocities achieved by high-pressure warm spraying. Commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) and Ti-6Al-4V powders were deposited on different substrates while varying spray parameters to determine their effect on particle velocity and coating quality. Particle image velocimetry was used to measure particle velocity, which peaked at 1,000 m/s. Coatings obtained under optimized conditions were characterized based on porosity, oxygen content, and hardness. The results show that the increased velocity of high-pressure warm spraying has significant beneficial effects in terms of improving density and controlling porosity and oxygen content.

The grid-spacing dependency of the numerical solutions of the supersonic gas/particle impinging flow of the cold spray is investigated. The control parameters of the grid spacing in the nozzle are the radial grid spacing normal to the nozzle wall, the axial grid spacing at the nozzle exit, and the radial number of grids in the nozzle. The working gas is nitrogen with a pressure and a temperature of 2MPa and 600K at the stagnant chamber. The solid particle to be accelerated by the supersonic gas flow is spherical copper 5µm in diameter. The numerical results reveal that the computational result with coarsest grid poorly captures the supersonic gas flow in the nozzle. However, the impinging velocity of the particle onto the substrate differs less than 3.5% between those results obtained from the finest and coarsest grids.

Thick titanium coatings were prepared by warm spraying (WS) and cold spraying (CS) process to investigate the oxidation and microstructure of the coating layers. Prior to the coating formations, the temperature and velocity of in-flight titanium powder particle were numerically calculated. Significant oxidation occurred in WS process using higher gas temperature conditions with low nitrogen flow rate, which is mixed to the flame jet of an HVOF spray gun in order to control the temperature of the propellant gas. Oxidation, however, decreased strikingly as the nitrogen flow rate increased. In CS process using nitrogen or helium as a propellant gas, little oxidation was observed. Although most of the cross-sections of the coating layers prepared by conventional mechanical polishing looked dense, coating cross sections prepared by an ion-milling method revealed the actual microstructures containing small pores and unbounded interfaces between deposited particles. Even when scanning electron microscopy or x-ray diffraction method did not detect oxides in the coating layers by WS using high nitrogen flow rate or CS using helium, the inert gas fusion method revealed minor increase of oxygen content below 0.3 wt%.

In Warm Spraying (WS), the temperature of the combustion flame is reduced and controlled by injecting nitrogen gas into the combustion flame before the injection of spray powders. Thus, temperatures of spray particles are kept under their melting points with moderately heated and thermally softened states. As compared to HVOF-spraying, the oxidation of particles can be significantly suppressed due to lower deposition temperatures, whereas, as compared to cold spraying, the degree of particle deformation upon impact can be enhanced by attaining higher particle temperatures. In the present study, Ti, Cu, and Al coatings were fabricated by WS under various nitrogen flow rates. The mechanical properties of the coatings were evaluated by tubular coating tensile (TCT) and micro flat tensile (MFT) tests. For the lower impact temperature regime, the coatings became denser and the ultimate strengths of Ti or Cu coatings increased reaching a maximum by decreasing the nitrogen flow rates. A further decrease of nitrogen flow rates and reaching the upper temperature regime reduced the coating strength. These results clearly demonstrate how particle temperatures affect the microstructures and mechanical properties of WS coatings and that optimum spray conditions have to be balanced between softening and oxidation by adjusting particle temperatures.

The warm spray gun was developed to make a coating of temperature-sensitive material, such as titanium, on a substrate. The gun has a combustion chamber followed by a mixing chamber, in which the combustion gas is mixed with the nitrogen gas at room temperature. The temperature in the gun can be controlled in the range of about 1500 - 2500 K by adjusting the mass flow rate of nitrogen gas. The mixed gas is accelerated to supersonic speed through a converging-diverging nozzle followed by a straight passage. In this paper, the performance of the warm spray gun is investigated by the simulation program in order to deeply understand the performance of the warm spray gun. The gas flow as well as the velocity and temperature of titanium particle inside and outside the gun are predicted by the numerical simulation.

Warm Spray has demonstrated that it could fabricate comparatively dense metal coatings keeping with high purity during the atmospheric process. Its key technology is the control of the temperature of the supersonic combustion jet prior to supplying feedstock. So far, even titanium (Ti), known as one of materials difficult for the atmospheric process, could be deposited with less oxidation and higher density of the resulting coatings. For instance, the porosity and oxygen content of two coatings obtained were 2.3 vol% and 0.28mass%, and 1.1vol% and 0.92mass%, respectively. Further densification of Ti coatings was achieved by bi-modal size distribution of feedstock powder upon Warm Spraying in this study. When bigger Ti particles were mixed with the usual feedstock powder under 45 µm, the coating porosity was decreased to 0.8vol% simultaneously with the low oxygen content of 0.26mass%, which was comparable to the level of feedstock powder. This densification is caused by the balance of the enhancement of the peening effect by big particles and of optimization of the filling rate of the big and small particles.

Numerical simulations of gas/particle flows of cold spray are performed for N 2 and He as a process gas respectively, to investigate the usefulness of the two material-independent combination parameters derived from the equations of particle motion and temperature. The first combination parameter is the particle-diameter multiplied by the material density, which governs the particle velocity. The second one is the squared particle-diameter multiplied by the material density and specific heat, which affects the particle temperature. In the numerical simulation, the materials of the spray particle selected are WC-12Co, Cu and Ti. The diameter of the particle is in the range of 0.1 – 30 µm. The present numerical results show that the maximum impact velocity of particle is obtained when the first combination parameter takes specific value regardless of the material type. Furthermore, it is shown that the particle diameter and its temperature corresponding to the maximum impact velocity can be graphically estimated by using the two combination parameters for any powder-materials normally used for the thermal spray.

Thermal spraying of dense titanium coatings in the air atmosphere was achieved by using a two-stage high velocity oxy-fuel process (HVOF) called the Warm Spray Process. In the process nitrogen gas is mixed with the combustion gas to lower the gas temperature. Gas dynamics modeling of the flow field of the gas in the spray apparatus as well as the acceleration and heating of titanium powder injected from the powder feed ports were conducted. Based on the obtained temperature history of a titanium powder particle, its oxidation during flight was also predicted by using a Wagner-type oxidation model. These results were compared with measured velocity and temperature of sprayed particles by DPV2000 and the properties of deposited coatings. Significant discrepancy in the temperature of sprayed particles was found between the calculation and measurement whereas the measured velocity was closer to the model calculation. The model prediction of oxygen content was in a good agreement with the analysis of actual coatings. Furthermore, properties of the sprayed coatings such as porosity, oxygen content were correlated with the particle velocities and temperatures. Nitrogen gas was highly effective in lowering the oxygen content, but excessive nitrogen addition caused the coating porosity to increase due to insufficient particle temperatures.

A special HVOF gun is used for aerodynamic research on internal flows of gas and particles in HVOF gun. The gun has rectangular cross-sectional area and has sidewalls of optical glass or transparent acrylic resin. Compressed air is used as process gas instead of combustion gas to visualize internal flow of the gun. The high-speed gas flows including shock waves in the gun are visualized by Schlieren technique. Particle trajectories in the gun are also visualized by high-speed digital video camera. The observation of erosion pattern created by particle collision on the barrel wall helps understand the particle trajectories throughout the barrel.

Titanium has an excellent corrosion property in chloride containing environments such as seawater. A modified HVOF spray process was developed by introducing a mixing chamber between the combustion chamber and the powder feed port. Nitrogen gas was fed into the mixing chamber to control the temperature of the combustion gas generated in the combustion chamber. By controlling the flow rate of nitrogen, various Ti coatings with different degree of oxidation and porosity could be fabricated. The densest coating produced by this process with surface polishing treatment maintained excellent corrosion protection over a steel substrate in artificial seawater in a laboratory test over 1 month.

This paper analyzes the behavior of coating particles as well as the gas flow in a High-Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) gun by using numerical simulation. Special attention is paid to the particle behavior in turbulent boundary-layer inside the barrel.