Thermal spray industry continues to develop The thermal spray industry has developed into a major consumer of metal powders since its de opment in the 1920s. The industry now consumes excess of 400 000 kg/year of a variety of materials including tungsten and chrome carbides, as well as nickel- and iron-based powders. W. Alan Saywell, special products manager at Metallisation Ltd of Dudley, UK, provides an overview of the industry and its latest developments. T nal spraying, or ‘metal spraying’ as it was known, first became a tool of industry in the early 1920s with the introduction of the gas wire process, ‘This technique enabled low melting point materials, such as zine, brass, bronze and various steels, in small diameter wire form to be melted and atomized in an oxygen/ Propane flame and then propelled by compressed air onto a grit blasted compo: nent to form a coating, The most common applications during the early years were corrosion protection of iron and steel by applying zine and for the restoration of worn or undersized parts by applying brass, bronze and simple steels to press fit bearing areas, armature shafts and impeller shafts. A significant advancement on the origi nal gas wire process was the incorporation of oxygen/acetylene as a heat source, which enabled higher melting point mate- rials to be sprayed, The development meant that molybdenum could be deposited for wear and scuff resistance applicatioi ceramic powder encased in a plastic sheath could be sprayed to form hard wear corrosion resistant coatings on pump shafts and a range of carbon and stainless steels have found applications on eylinder liners and crankshafts, From these early beginnings a sophisti- cated world market has developed in terms of equipment, materials and applications. ‘The limitations of the gas wire process were overcome by the introduction of various processes which are capable of depositing an almost infinite range of materials in powder form enabling engineers and de signers to incorporate coatings which en: hance the performance of components in service. The term ‘thermal spraying’ em braces all of these various processes and materials, Thirty years ago approximately 70% of this market was for reclamation work and 30% for original equipment manufacture (OEM), but today these fig: tures have been reversed A natural development of deposition by wire took place in the early 1960s with the introduction of the electrie are process (igure 2) whereby two wires are simulta. neously fed to a controlled DC are, At this point the molten pool is atomized and the Particles are projected to the component by FIGURE 1: The gas wire process. WIRE DRIVE MECHANISM COMPRESSED AIR | SPRAY STREAM MIXED FUEL GAS & OXYGEN 34 MPR April 1996 All rights reserved (0026-0657/96/US$15.00 Copyright © 1996, Elsevier Science Lid+VE BLOCK NOZZLE AIR CAP WIRE AIR -= 7 \ ARC ZONE ‘CONTACT TUBE -VE SHROUD compressed air. Deposition rates by the electric are process are governed by amper- age and above 200 amps the speed of application for most materials is faster than that of the gas wire process. Specialist, wires in the form of powder encased in a metallic sheath have recently been devel- ‘oped which are unique to this process The Introduction of the (oxygen/acet- ylene) powder process (see Figure 3) in ‘the 1950s increased market and application awareness by its ability to deposit powdered forms of the wire process materials, but more importantly new materials which could not be produced in wire form. ‘A range of nickel- and cobalt-based chrome, boron, silicon alloys, and similar materials containing tungsten carbide were introduced to solve wear problems in a variety of industries. These materials are ‘fused’ following deposition to form a homogeneous structure. The steel industry uses these materials to resist wear on guide rolls and run out rolls in rod and section mills, The glass industry applies them to FIGURE 2: The electro aro wire process. enhance the life of mould plungers, while the oil industry benefits by having gate valves coated. Ceramic powders incorporating, alumi: nium oxide, titanium dioxide and blends of these materials have been developed for their high hardness and chemical inert- ness for applications in the petrochemical and textile industries. Many of these coat ings replaced chrome plating and can improve the life of components by as much as 10 times, The thermal spray industry enjoyed considerable expansion during the 1960s and 1970s with several factors converging to push the process forward. Replacement parts were becoming increasingly expensive and manufacturing industries were looking for more sophisticated machinery. In parti cular, industry was looking for lighter and longer lasting components that could offer improved performance. These factors were particularly relevant to the automo- bile, textile and aerospace industries. Although industry had experienced the FIGURE 3: A schematic of the oxygen/acetylene powder process. BURNING GASES ‘SPRAY STREAM POWDER, + SPRAY STREAM POWDER FEED GAS MPR April 1996 35,36 MPR April 1996 Powder Injection benefits of thermal sprayed coatings there was a new demand to refine existing materials, expand with new materials and develop new equipment capable of produ: cing coatings with improved qualities in cluding bond strength, particle cohesion, surface finish and special qualities, such as abradability To achieve this the plasma system was developed (Figures 4 and 5). In this process the heat source is derived by passing an electrical current between an anode and a cathode and injecting a gas or combination of gases such as argon, argon/nitrogen, argon/hydrogen and nitrogen/hydrogen FIGURE 6: Typical plasma spray equipment. FIGURE 4: The plasma powder process. ‘The current jonises the gas raising its energy to a higher level and giving the resultant plasma heat source a melting temperature of 15 000°C and a velocity of 150 m/sec. Powder feed systems have been developed to deliver powder at a controllable and consistent rate to the heat souree. ‘The latest technology that completes the current family of thermal spray techniques Is the high velocity oxygen/fuel process (HVOF) which was developed in the late 1980s. Various gas combinations are used including oxygen/kerosene, oxygen/hydro gen, oxygen/propane and. oxygen/propy- lene. Gas velocities of 700 m/see are typical with this process. Powder particle size is generally finer than for the plasma process and particle size distribution more critical. The process was primarily devel- oped to deposit tungsten earbides, chrome carbides and super alloys. The resultant coatings have bond strengths and inter particle cohesion which are greater than any of the other processes, It Is Interesting to note, however that no single process has made any of the others redundant. Each still has its place within the thermal spray industry. Table 1 shows a comparison of some of the typical proper- ties and characteristics of the various processes. In solving to an engineering component problem, whether it be a repair scenario or the coating of a component at the OEM stage, the most important eriter fs selecting a material that will meet the environmental conditions in which the part will be operating — the choice of method by which the coating material is to be applied should he a secondary consideration. Applications ‘Thermal spray applications have now pene. trated virtually every type of industry. ‘The aerospace industry is probably the largest user of thermal sprayed coatings accounting for approximately 65% of pow