Thick deposits were produced from pure Al powder of three different sieve sizes using cold spraying at the same process parameters. The in-plane mechanical and fracture properties of the deposits were investigated using bending of small specimens in four specimen orientations. It was shown that increasing the Al particle size by approximately 50% and 100% leads to small, but statistically significant differences of yield strength. Further, the increase in the powder particle size led to higher fracture toughness K IC but lower fatigue crack growth threshold ΔK thr . This can be attributed to two different fracture mechanisms in the cold sprayed deposits. A trans-particular fracture in the near-threshold fatigue regime is controlled by the microstructure and work hardening of the particles. At higher cyclic loads and in quasi-static regime, the particle decohesion and the resulting crack path determine the fracture behavior instead. However, the observed effect of particle size was rather small, much smaller than the effect of spray process parameters observed in the previous research.

Mechanical and fatigue properties of cold sprayed (CS) Cu 20 Sn bell metal were tested in order to assess the potential applicability of the technology to repair impact areas of church bells. The CS bell metal was compared to its traditional cast counterparts, a fine-grained Cu 22 Sn bell metal seen in small bells, and a coarse-grained Cu 20 Sn seen in large bells. Similar to other CS metals, it was shown that both the strength as well as the fatigue crack growth rates at low loading are similar to the cast materials. The fracture toughness of the CS material was comparable with the finegrained Cu 22 Sn bell metal, while both were significantly lower than the coarse-grained Cu 20 Sn bell metal. The impact damage rate of the CS material determined by a periodic impact test was significantly higher than the (finegrained) cast material. Both materials showed a stabilized, very slow damage rate after the relatively fast initial crater formation. The results presented in this paper identify CS as a feasible restoration technology for church bells, and the introduced methodology presents a characterization method for quantitative description of bell metal impact damage.

Anisotropy of stress-strain behavior, fracture toughness, and fatigue crack growth rate of Ti6Al4V deposited by cold spray using nitrogen was studied. For that, flat deposits were tested with stress acting in the in-plane directions and tubular deposits were tested in the out-of-plane stress directions. In all tests, unified small-size specimens were used. It was shown that for the in-plane stress, the deposits can be considered isotropic, whereas the out-of-plane stress led to significantly lower values of the measured properties. The obtained results were related to fractography and microstructural analysis. While a combination of trans-particle and inter-particle fracture determined the fatigue properties in the near-threshold regime, at higher loads, inter-particle fracture was dominant. It was also shown that the different particle-to-stress orientations influenced the resulting fatigue and static properties.

Deposition of hybrid plasma-sprayed coatings employing both dry powder and liquid feedstocks enables preparation of innovative coating architectures. Using this technique, miniature domains of additional (secondary) material may be introduced via the liquid feedstock route into the more conventional powder-deposited coating, providing potential benefits for the coating functionality. In this contribution, we have explored the tribological properties of hybrid coatings sprayed from alumina powder with additions of chromia (Cr 2 O 3 ), zirconia (ZrO 2 ), yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), and titania (TiO 2 ) delivered from liquid feedstocks. The coatings were subjected to dry sliding wear testing and a subsequent analysis of the wear tracks to determine their wear resistance and coefficient of friction, as well as a qualitative assessment of the wear mechanisms. The hybrid coating doped with the chromia addition matched the remarkable wear resistance of highly-dense suspension-sprayed coatings. This is a significant result, especially when considering the order of magnitude better production efficiency of the hybrid coatings.

Lead, lead-bismuth, or lead-lithium are candidate materials for liquid metal-based cooling media in the new generation of nuclear fission reactors and fusion systems. There are many benefits of using this concept; however, a new problem arises too: preventing degradation of structural materials that are supposed to come into a direct contact. Therefore, new steel grades are being designed, and technological workarounds are searched for. One of the pathways could be a deposition of thick, long-term stability protective coatings onto the steel surfaces. In our opening study, we have employed CS and RF-ICP technologies to deposit Mo and Fe coatings onto ferritic-type 9% Cr Eurofer steel and its ODS variant, and tested them in the PbLi environment at 600 °C for up to 1000 hours. The results suggest that the Fe coatings showed a promising resistance to the corrosive medium and are worth studying deeper.

The scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) technique is used for studying the character and interface quality of cold sprayed Fe coatings deposited onto notched Al-based substrates. Three notch geometries were used: a rectangular notch, a trapezoidal notch with a flat bed, and a trapezoidal notch with a cylindrical bed. Scanning electron micrographs demonstrated an increased porosity and cracks at the areas where the spraying direction was not perpendicular to the surface of the substrate. The SAM measurements were then performed on thin plates cut vertically across the notches such that the scanned area included the locations of the increased porosity and their surroundings. The resulting distributions of longitudinal wave velocities and their attenuation revealed that the affected area is more complex and the mechanical response of the coatings could be limited not only at areas of the visible porosity, but also in their vicinity.

Diamond-reinforced composites prepared by cold spray are emerging materials simultaneously featuring outstanding thermal conductivity and wear resistance. Their mechanical and fatigue properties relevant to perspective engineering applications were investigated using miniature bending specimens. Cold sprayed specimens with two different mass concentrations of diamond 20% and 50% in two metallic matrices (Al – lighter than diamond, Cu – heavier than diamond) were compared with the respective pure metal deposits. These pure metal coatings showed rather limited ductility. The diamond addition slightly improved ductility and fracture toughness of the Cu-based composites, having a small effect also on the fatigue crack growth resistance. In case of the Al composites, the ductility as well as fatigue crack growth resistance and fracture toughness have improved significantly. The static and fatigue failure mechanisms were fractographically analyzed and related to the microstructure of the coatings, observing that particle decohesion is the primary failure mechanism for both static and fatigue fracture.

Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy was applied to analyze the elastic anisotropy of thick copper, aluminum, titanium, and nickel coatings prepared by cold spraying and to determine the respective elastic moduli. The results show that the coatings exhibit only weak deviations from perfect isotropy, and the obtained elastic moduli are comparable with those of the corresponding polycrystalline bulks. The increased internal friction observed in some of the studied coatings may indicate grain refinement and consequent grain boundary sliding.

This study investigates the development of fatigue failure in steel specimens coated by various spraying methods with and without grit blasting. Commercial titanium powder was deposited on structural steel substrates by low-pressure and portable cold spray as well as plasma and warm spray. Coating samples were subjected to strain-controlled cyclic bending, while monitoring resonant frequency as a measure of accumulated damage. A change in frequency of 4 Hz was chosen as the test-stop with the corresponding cycle count serving as the main indicator of fatigue life. Test results are presented in the paper along with explanations of fatigue mechanisms and process-related factors.

Four powder blends of Al and Ti were cold sprayed on Ti-Al-Nb substrates at 300°C. Test samples were heat treated in Ar at 500 °C then exposed to 950 °C air for 100-500 h. It was found that oxidation rates were significantly reduced by the coatings, especially those with lower Ti content. However, four-point bending tests revealed that the deposition of the protective layer reduced the flexural strength of the coated substrate. The results indicate that oxidation is not the only factor influencing the mechanical properties of intermetallics at high temperatures.

Thick Fe-Al deposits were produced by low-pressure cold spraying using heated air as the working gas. The coatings were isothermally annealed for two hours in Ar at temperatures from 250 °C to 750 °C. Changes in fracture behavior and microhardness were evaluated along with the microstructure and composition of newly formed phases. The results show that the evolution of intermetallic phases was driven by diffusion at temperatures above 550 °C. The new phases formed a hard skeleton that preserved the general shape of the samples during treatment despite the growth of external dimensions and porosity.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is preferred for its ability to interact with living bone, resulting in improvements of implant fixation and faster bone healing. In this study, a small amount of silicon dioxide (~ 2wt%) was introduced into HA slurry which was subsequently spray-dried into powder. A silicon modified HA coating was then deposited onto Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrates by atmospheric plasma spraying technology. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, and Raman spectrometry were employed to investigate the surface chemistry that would directly influence bone forming cell proliferation. Additionally, the adhesive bonding strength of the as-sprayed coatings were specified measured using a universal testing system. The fracture surfaces after tensile test were also investigated by SEM.

This work investigates the influence of plasma-sprayed deposits on the fatigue life of coated specimens. Hydroxyapatite (HA) and TiO 2 were deposited on dog-bone shaped substrates under different spraying conditions while measuring in-flight particle temperature and velocity. The coated specimens were then subjected to cyclic bending with constant deflection and the number of cycles to failure was recorded. It was found that the higher the temperature and velocity of particles during spraying, the greater the improvement in fatigue life up to a maximum of 46% compared to uncoated samples.

Changes in phase composition of titania (TiO 2 ) coatings were studied with respect to in-flight particle characteristics during atmospheric plasma spraying. A CCD camera was used to record the average temperature and velocity of TiO 2 particles within the plasma jet for six combinations of spraying parameters selected according to Taguchi design of experiments. Phase composition of the coatings was assessed by means of X-ray diffractometry and numerically specified using Rietveld analysis. Changes in composition between the powders and coatings were observed with respect to the in-flight properties of the titania particles during spraying. In general, it was shown that the amount of impurity phases (hematite, quartz) present in the powder decreased after deposition and that in-flight temperature has only a moderate effect on the phase composition of TiO 2 coatings. For comparison purposes, additional coatings were deposited by cold spraying and phase composition changes were assessed.