A group of blended and spray dried solid lubricants with the same nominal composition were deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). The wear resistance of two coatings formed at room temperature and 350°C was evaluated using a rig test to simulate actual application conditions. The results showed that the blended powder coating showed inferior mechanical and tribological properties due to its non-uniform microstructure, which were induced by the differences in the physical and thermophysical properties of each constituent phase. However, the nanostructured spray-dried feedstock coating showed a better wear resistance due to its lower porosity, higher hardness and higher bond strength. In addition, the friction coefficient decreased with an increase of the Ag fraction and the uniformity of the Ag solid lubricant in the coating.

In the kinetic spraying process, the critical velocity is an important criterion which determines the deposition of a feedstock particle onto the substrate. It was experimentally and numerically proven that the critical velocity is determined by the physical properties and the state of materials such as initial temperature, size and the extent of oxidation. Compared to un-oxidized feedstock, oxidized feedstock required a greater kinetic energy of the in-flight particle to break away the oxide film during impact. The oxide film formed on the surface of particle and substrate is of a relatively higher brittleness and hardness than those of general metals. Because of its physical characteristics, the oxide significantly affected the deposition behavior and critical velocity. The effects of oxidation on the critical velocity and the deposition behavior of the feedstock were investigated and evaluated by individual particle impact tests in this study. The velocity of pure Al particles was measured for a wide range of process gas conditions.