In this work, tungsten carbide coatings are deposited by low-pressure cold spraying in order to assess the influence of powder compressive strength and binder materials on coating properties. Powder compressive strength was measured with a micro-compression tester, and cobalt and FeCr in different proportions were used as the metal binder. It was found that compressive strength affects coating hardness as well as deposition efficiency and that the optimum value for deposition efficiency is about 200 MPa. The results also indicate that dense coatings can be produced with either binder material, although coatings with an FeCr binder are the hardest.

In cold spray, feedstock powders are accelerated by supersonic jet with solid phase and deposited onto substrate. Compare with the conventional thermal spray, the coatings have low porosity without oxidation and decomposition. This study examines the effect of the powder compressive strength of each particle on coating deposition characteristics using two types of Ni powders, manufactured in a different process, in cold spray. The result indicated that heat treatment reduced the powder compressive strength, and the decrease of the powder compressive strength was related to the increase of bond strength of particles and deposition efficiency. In addition, it was shown that the powder compressive strength has an influence of deposition mechanism.

In the thermal spraying technique, the process includes some problems such as insufficient cohesive strength between particles in the coating. It is considered that the laser treatment of thermal spray coating will be effective method to improve the coating properties. In this study, an yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser treatment was carried out on the sprayed coating in order to examine the effect of laser beam on the coating properties and post laser treatment method and hybrid spraying method were carried out. Irradiation laser power conditions were 1.5kW, 2.0kW and 2.5kW, and defocus distance conditions were ±0mm, +30mm, +60mm, +90mm, changing the energy density and the traverse speed conditions were 100mm/s, 200mm/s, 300mm/s. In post treatment method the affected region in the Cr 3 C 2 -Ni-Cr coating is smaller with increasing traverse speed. Laser energy density affected the microstructure. In the case of defocus distance ±0mm and traverse speed is 100mmm/s there are three different regions, melted region, heat affected region and no affected region in the coating. The micro Vickers hardness of melted region of coatings was lower and heat affected region of coatings was higher than no laser treatment coating. It was considered that with post laser treatment method it was very difficult to treat the coating uniformly. In the blast erosion test, the wear-out rate of hybrid spray coating was lower than that of the HVOF spray coating. It is considered that the improvement of micro Vickers hardness of Cr 3 C 2 -Ni-Cr hybrid sprayed coating resulted from the precipitation of fine chrome carbide in the matrix and their strengthening affect cohesive strength between lamella in the coating. In WC-Co hybrid sprayed coating, the improvement of micro Vickers hardness resulted from the porosity decrease. The coating structure was different even in the identical processing condition by the place. The micro Vickers hardness of melted area of coatings was lower and heat affected area of coatings was higher than no laser treatment coating.

Although thermal spraying technique is used in many industries, it suffers from several problems. For example, the hardness of the coatings is lower than that of sintered material for the incompleted cohesiveness. An yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser was used during HVOF spraying to improve the properties of the applied coating. Several carbide powders were used as thermal spray materials, and stainless steel (SUS304) was used as substrate. Coatings were sprayed by hybrid spraying method, which was combined HVOF spraying with YAG laser. The hardness of coatings sprayed by hybrid spraying was higher, and the weight loss in a blast-erosion test was smaller than that of coatings applied by HVOF spraying only. The particles deposited in the coatings obtained by hybrid spraying were very fine. Laser irradiation to the HVOF flame improve the adhesion strength between particles and the deposition of fine carbide particles in the coating. It was considered that mechanism of coating strengthening in hybrid spraying was resulted from strengthening of cohesiveness by heating effect and decreasing of porosity by flattening effect according to observation results of Ni splats sprayed by hybrid spraying method.