The development and introduction of more advanced spray systems continues to drive the thermal spray market. Most of these developments benefit from an increase in particle velocities. The latest generation of HVOF systems can spray cermet coatings of higher density and higher hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance than HVOF systems introduced previously, due to an 30 to 50 % increase in particle velocity. HVAF systems are offered as an cost-effective alternative to HVOF systems. A further increase in particle velocity and the introduction of cold gas spraying can be seen as a transition from thermal to kinetic spraying and may open a wide field of new applications for coatings and structures of oxidation sensitive materials. Advances are also reported for wire spraying. New arc spray systems are capable to increase the density of metal and alloy coatings considerably and to reduce the oxide content of these coatings. Similar improvements but at lower spray rates may be achieved with newly developed HVOF wire systems. Paper text in German.

The paper reports a series of experiments with various HVOF spray systems (Jet Kote, Top Gun, Diamond Jet (DJ) Standard, DJ 2600 and 2700, JP-5000) using different types of WC-Co and WC-Co-Cr powders. The microstructure and phase composition of powders and coatings were analyzed by optical and scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Carbon and oxygen content of the coatings were determined in order to study the decarburization and oxidation of the material during the spray process. Coatings were also characterized by their hardness, bond strength, abrasive wear and corrosion resistance. The results demonstrate that the powders exhibit various degrees of phase transformation during the spray process depending on the type of powder, the spray system and the spray parameters. Within a relatively wide range, the extend of phase transformations has only little effect on coating properties. Therefore coatings of high hardness and wear resistance can be produced with all HVOF spray systems when the proper spray powder and process parameters are chosen.

The cavitation erosion of various hardfacing coatings was investigated by using a vibratory cavitation apparatus according to ASTM G 32. Coatings of austenitic stainless steel containing 10 % cobalt were applied by arc welding. High velocity oxy-fuel spraying (HVOF) was employed to produce coatings of various kinds of cermets and metallic alloys. For each coating, the steady state erosion rate was determined and the effect of process parameters and alloy composition on the microstructure and erosion rate was investigated. The morphology and microstructure of the coatings before and after cavitation testing were analysed by metallographic methods in order to study the erosion mechanism. It is demonstrated that the high resistance to cavitation erosion of the cobalt-alloyed steel can even further increase when the fluxed core arc welding process and an improved pulsed power source are used to produce the coatings. The erosion resistance of the HVOF coatings, however, was limited by pores, microcracks and oxides and did not significantly exceed the level typical for bulk stainless steel 316 L.

During Thermal Spraying material is partially or totally melted in between milliseconds, accelerated to high velocities and propelled onto the surface to be coated. Different temperatures, velocities and cooling times of the particles arise from different spraying techniques and conditions. The microstructure can be widely varied by tuning the spraying parameters. To optimize the coating properties with respect to a specific function one has to know i) the influence of the spraying conditions on the microstructure and ii) the correlation between microstructure and coating properties. Therefore analyzing methods are needed to determine the microstructure and to characterize mechanical, physical and chemical properties of the coatings. The proposed paper summarizes methods to characterize the microstructure including metallographic techniques, electron microscopy and X-ray analysis. Methods to determine the properties of the coatings including various adhesion tests, residual stress measurement, tribological and corrosion tests will be described in more detail. The increasing importance of Quality Management in all industrial sectors call heavily for reliable, destructive and especially non-destructive characterization techniques of coatings. An overview of common characterization techniques as well as new trends will be given. Recent development of International standardized tests will also be reported.

The proposed paper reports a series of experiments to investigate the cavitation erosion mechanism of HVOF coatings. Vibratory cavitation erosion tests according to ASTM G 32 have been carried out with several HVOF coatings including cermets, oxides and metallic alloys. The steady state erosion rate for each coating was determined and the effect of coating composition and microstructure on the erosion rate was investigated. The morphology and microstructure of the various coatings before and after cavitation testing were analyzed by means of light optical and scanning electron microscopy in order to study the erosion mechanism. The results demonstrate that HVOF coatings of NiCrFeBSi, WC-17Co, Cr 3 C 2 -25NiCr and Cr 2 O 3 can exhibit a rather high resistance against cavitation erosion and should be considered for application as a protective surface layer against cavitation. Furthermore, it is shown that cavitation testing can provide a useful tool to study and characterize the bond strength between individual splats as well as the brittleness of the individual phases present in the coating.

High velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spray experiments were carried out using various spray systems. A comparison is made of the systems introduced as a first and second generation (Jet Kote, Diamond Jet, Top Gun, CDS) with the more recently introduced systems of the third generation (JP 5000, DJ 2600, DJ 2700). The comparison is based on particle velocities and experiments to evaluate the heat transfer to the particles. The results show that the systems of the new generation with a converging-diverging nozzle section can produce up to 50% higher particle velocities. The higher kinetic energy allows to reduce the thermal energy and to reduce thermally activated phase transformations of the coating material during the spray process. Carbide coatings produced with one of the new HVOF systems exhibit a higher density, higher bond strength and higher hardness as compared to coatings produced with one of the systems of the first and second HVOF generation. Furthermore, the reduced thermal energy yields less oxidative loss of carbon and opens the possibility to spray coatings with neutral or compressive internal stresses, a prerequisite to produce carbide coatings up to a thickness of several millimeters.