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A complex investigation of structure and properties of thermally sprayed Ni and Cu-based coatings
B. Gergov, I. Iordanova, Ts. Velinov
To cite this version:
B. Gergov, I. Iordanova, Ts. Velinov. A complex investigation of structure and properties of thermally
sprayed Ni and Cu-based coatings. Revue de Physique Appliquée, Société française de physique / EDP,
1990, 25 (12), pp.1197-1204. �10.1051/rphysap:0199000250120119700�. �jpa-00246289�
REVUE DE PHYSIQUE APPLIQUÉE
1197
A complex investigation of structure and properties of thermally sprayed
Ni and Cu-based coatings
B.
Gergov (1),
I. lordanova(2),
Ts. Velinov(2)
(1)
Institute of minebuilding,
blvd. Chr. Kabakchiev 23, 1505 Sofia,Bulgaria (2)
SofiaUniversity, Faculty
ofPhysics,
blvd. A. Ivanov 5, 1126 Sofia,Bulgaria (Received
14May
1990, revised 29 August 1990,accepted
20September 1990)
Résumé. 2014 Plusieurs méthodes
expérimentales,
notammentanalyse
par rayons X,microscopie optique
etélectronique,
mesure de laporosité
et interférence d’ondesthermiques
sontappliquées
afin de rechercher lespropriétés
des couches métallisées parprojection thermique.
Certaines conclusions concernant l’influence de lacomposition chimique
et de latechnologie
sur la structure et lespropriétés mécaniques
etphysiques
descouches sont
présentées.
Abstract. 2014 A number of
experimental
methodsincluding X-ray analysis, optical
and electronmicroscopy, porosity
measurements and thermal waveinterferometry
areapplied
forinvestigation
of theproperties
ofthermally sprayed coatings.
Some conclusions about the influence of the chemicalcomposition
and thetechnological
parameters on the structure and mechanicalproperties
of thecoatings
are drawn.Revue
Phys. Appl.
25(1990)
1197-1204 DÉCEMBRE 1990,Classification
Physics
Abstracts81.70
1. Introduction.
Thermal
spraying
is used toproduce metal,
metal-ceramic or ceramic
coatings by impact
of molten orsemi-molten
particles
on a metalsubstrate,
whichmay have a flat or a more structured surface texture.
The
coating’s composition
andproperties
can be thesame, or
different,
from those of the substrate.Materials to be
sprayed usually
are in form ofwire, powder
or rod.The
thermally sprayed coatings
are chosen withappropriate mechanical, thermal, anti-corrosion, electrical,
etc.properties.
The correlation between the
wear-resistance,
mi-crostructure and other
coating’s properties
has pre-viously
beeninvestigated [1].
Other studies have beenperformed
on thebonding
mechanism betweenthe
sprayed coating
and the substrate[2, 3].
Thethermal
diffusivity
and thermaleffusivity
coefficientsas well as the thermal
conductivity
and thespecific
heat of the
coatings
have been estimated in[4, 5].
The influence of the
coating properties
on thesensitivity
of the thermal-wavetesting techniques
isinvestigated
in[4].
Acomparison
ofcoating
micro-structure on the
propagation
of thermal and ultrason-ic waves is made in
[6]. Microstructure, composition,
micro- and macrostrains in
layers
of nitrocarburized iron and steel has beeninvestigated
in[7] by
themeans of
optical
and electronmicroscopy
andX-ray analysis. However,
a survey of the literature revealed that the number of papersdescribing
the resultsobtained
by
a more wideranging investigation
of anumber of
properties
of the flamesprayed coatings
is
quite
restricted.The purpose of this paper is to
report
on theapplication
of avariety
ofexperimental
methods toinvestigate
theproperties
of the flamesprayed coatings,
the mechanisms of their formation and thedependence
of thecoating’s properties
on sometechnological parameters
of thespraying
process.2.
Préparation
ofcoatings
andexpérimental
methodsfor their characterization.
2.1 PREPARATION OF SAMPLES. - The
coatings
were
applied by
the MOGUL U-10equipment
forthermal
spraying using powders produced by
the« INTERWELD »
firm,
Austria. The scheme of theequipment
used is shown infigure
1.Principally
theequipment
acts as follows : the flame of the thermal gun results from theburning
ofacetylene
andoxygen
passing through
the nozzles of the gun. Thecoating powder
istransported
into the flameby
thetransport
gas. For some of thesamples
an airjet
hasbeen also blown
through
the nozzles atangle
10° toArticle published online by EDP Sciences and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/rphysap:0199000250120119700
1198
Fig.
1. -Block-diagram
of theequipment
for thermalspraying
ofpowders.
the
sprayed
beam. This airjet envelopes
the flameand
changes
itsgas-dynamic parameters
and thevelocity
of thepowder particles.
Thetechnological parameters
were as follows :-
PC:zH2
= 0.09-0.10 MPa(pressure
ofacetylene) ;
-
Po2
= 0.18-0.20 MPa(pressure
ofoxygen) ;
-
Ptr.gas
= 0.05-0.06 MPa(transport
gas pres-sure) ;
-
powder grain
size - 45 - 90 ktm.The chemical
composition
of the usedpowders
isgiven
in table I.Table I. - Chemical
composition of
usedpowders, according
to thefirm 2013 producer
« INTERWELD ».(*)
WC andW2C
aremechanically
mixed in thepowder.
The
samples
wereprepared
in the form of tablets(Fig. 2).
Thecoatings
wereapplied
on mild steelsubstrates
(diameter
22 mm, thickness 3mm),
whichFig.
2. -Shape
and dimensions(in mm)
of thesamples.
were
previously grit
blastedby
corundum. Afterspraying,
thecoatings
werepolished parallel
andperpendicularly
to their flat surfaces. Threesamples SI,
S2 and S3 with acoating
thickness of 1 mm wereprepared (Tab. II).
In order to etch the
polished
surfaces for themetallographical analysis,
thefollowing
reactantswere used :
- for
sample
SI and S2 - 20 mlHN03
+ 2drops HF;
- for
sample
S3 - 30 mlNH4/25 %/
+ 30 mlH202 (3 %)
+ 30 mlH20.
Table II. -
Samples for
theinvestigations.
(*)
airjet
pressure.Samples
SI and S2 were etched for 15 s at roomtemperature by dipping
thesamples
into the solutionand
washing
in water afterwards.Sample
S3 wasetched at room
temperature,
the reactantsbeing applied
in this caseby
cotton wool for 5 s, followedby
waterrinsing.
2.2 EXPERIMENTAL METHODS. - The
following
methods were used :
-
metallographical analysis ;
-
X-ray analysis ;
-
measuring
of the relativeporosity ;
- SEM
(scanning
electronmicroscopy) ;
-
interferometry
with thermal waves.By
themetallographical analysis
the microstruc- ture wasinvestigated
and the microhardness wasestimated. The Vickers microhardness was measured
by applying
the 100 g load for aloading
time of 10 s.Hundred measurements were made to obtain
good
statistics for
drawing
the microhardness distributioncurves.
Phase
analysis by X-ray
diffraction wasperformed using
a diffractometer with a CoKa characteristic X- ray beam and ascanning angle
2 9 from 20° to 120°.In this way, information about the
composition
andthe
crystal
structure of thecoatings
was obtained.The relative
porosity
was estimatedby hydrostatic weighing
of thecoating
after itsseparation
from thesubstrate. This involved
drying, covering
thecoating
with a thin vaseline
film, hanging
on a thinthread,
andweighing
in air and in water.The
porosity
p(%)
was estimatedby
thefollowing
formula :
where :
p Z :
density
of thecoating material ;
p W :
density
of distilled water ;Pc :
density
of metalthread,
used for thehanging
ofthe
coatings ;
py
density
of thevaseline ; WZ :
thecoating weight
inair ;
fl : weight
of thepart
of the metalthread,
which is under water ;Wv weight
of vaseline filmapplied
on thecoating ;
W :
weight
of thesample
with the vaseline film and the metal thread. inair ;
W :
weight
of thesample
with thevaseline, hung
onthe thread in water.
By
SEMmapping
it waspossible
to determine thefollowing :
the average chemicalcomposition
of thecoatings ;
the average chemicalcomposition
of eachtype
of thegrains
observedmetallographically
andalso of
parts
of thegrains ;
the distribution of the main chemical elements in thecoating.
The schematic
diagram
of thephotoacoustic
exper- imentalsetup
is shown infigure
3. Aplexiglass cell, designed
as a Helmholz resonator with an about2
cm3 sample
chamber volume and a condensermicrophone
Brüel &Kjaer
4166 were used. Thebeam of a 50 mW He-Ne laser was
interrupted by
acomputer
controlled mechanicalchopper
in thefrequency
range 13-250 Hz and fell unfocused onto thesample.
Theamplitude
and thephase
of thephotoacoustic signal
wereregistrated by
a PARC5301 lock - in
amplifier
and were sent to acomputer through
a RS 232 C interface. Thesamples
Fig.
3. -Block-diagram
of thephotoacoustic experimen-
tal
equipment
for thermal waveinterferometry.
used in this case are identical to SI and S2 but their diameter is 14 mm.
3.
Expérimental
results and discussion.The microstructures of the
samples SI,
S2 and S3 are shown infigure
4. It isobvious,
that the microstruc-ture of S3 is more
homogeneous
and with lessporosity
than SI and S2. Threegrain types
were observed in SI and S2 :-
grains
withinhomogeneous microstructure, containing
inclusions in the volume with the form of rods or rocks(defined
as A inFig. 4) ;
-
grains
with acomplicated
form without for-mations, appearing
asbright regions (type
B inFig. 4) ;
-
grains
withinhomogeneous microstructure, consisting
ofregions containing
dot - like for-mations
(type
C inFig. 4).
In
sample S2,
some of thegrains
have aperfectly spherical shape
as can be seen fromfigure
4. It issupposed,
thatthey correspond
to thealready
de-scribed
type
Cgrains,
but are formed from suchpowder particles,
for which thetechnological
para- meters were not suitable to cause theirmelting.
Thespherical grains
are observed over the whole S2coating surface,
andquite rarely
over the SIcoating
surface.
In
figure
5 the Vickers microhardness distributioncurves for different
types
ofgrains
and for the wholeobserved surface are shown. It is obvious that in
samples
SI and S2 theregions
with inclusions in the form of rods or rocks(type A, Fig. 4)
have thelowest values of the microhardness. The
highest
values of the microhardness are observed in the
grains
with dot - like formations inside them and forspherical grains (type C, Fig. 4).
The microhard-ness values in S 1 and S2 are much more in-
homogeneous
than those in S3. Thisinhomogeneity
is more
pronounced
for S2. The average value of themicrohardness
for S 1 and S2 ishigher
than for S3.The results from the
X-ray
diffractionanalysis
aregiven
in table III. The data for pure Ni and pure Cu in the table are taken from a reference book. Theexperimentally
obtained diffracted beamangles
forthe
investigated samples
have been correctedby
thedata for a
quartz monocrystal standard,
whose diffractionpattern
has beenregistered
atexactly
thesame conditions as for the
investigated specimens.
This
procedure
was followed to exclude the sys- tematical error when the diffractionpattern
was taken. From theX-ray
data it isobvious,
that the obtainedcoatings
have apolycrystalline
structureand all the
registered
diffractionpeaks
followstrictly
those of the basic materials
(Ni
orCu).
As it couldbe seen from table
III,
the diffractionpeaks
of theinvestigated samples
are shifted to smaller 0angles
in
comparison
with those for pure Ni or Cu. The1200
Fig.
4. - Microstructure of thecoatings-cross-section (X 300). a)
forsample
SI :A-grains
with inclusions in the form ofrods ; B-grains
withcomplicated shape
withoutformations ; C-grains
with dot-like formations.b)
forsample
S2 :A-grains
with inclusions in the form ofrocks ; B-grains
withcomplicated
form withoutformations ;
C-grains
with dot-like formations.c)
forsample
S3.Fig.
5. - Vickers microhardness distribution curves(A,
B, C, as in
Fig. 4 ; S-summary). a)
forsample
SI ;b)
forsample
S2 ;c)
forsample
S3.Table III. -
X-ray diffractometry investigations by
CoKa beam.applied X-ray phase analysis
does not show any evidence of the existence of more than onephase.
Probably
the mainphases
of thepolycrystalline coatings
formed are solid solutions on the base of nickel or copperrespectively.
If otherphases exist,
theirquantity
isobviously
smaller than a few volumepercents
and so are not sufficient to beregistered by
this method. The shift of the diffraction
peaks
fromthe
positions
for pure Ni or Cu could be connected with the existence of different atoms in the lattice of Ni or Cuforming
the solid solutions or with the residual stressesarising .as
a result of the difference between the thermalproperties
of thecoating
andsubstrate.
The first reason for the observed shift is more
probable
for thesample
S3 which containes 14.38 wt % Al(see
Tab.IV).
The atomic radius ofthe latter
(rAl
=1.43 À)
isbigger
than the atomicradius of Cu
(rcu
= 1.28À )
and could be the reasonfor the observed shift to smaller 8. The
comparison
between the atomic radii of Ni and the
alloying
elements in
samples
SI and S2 shows that such a shiftof X-ray peaks
connected with this difference should not exist. Arough
estimation of the sum of the main residual stresses(Ol ¡ + u 2),
based on the shift of theX-ray peaks
andperformed following
theprocedure
described in
[8], gives
the maximum values of(a + u2) ’"
1 000 MPa. These values arehigher
than the observed
by
other authors[7, 8],
but theperformed
in this work estimation is not accurateenough
and aimsonly
to show theprobable
reasonfor the observed shift of the
X-ray peaks.
In
figure
6 the characteristic KaX-ray
maps, obtainedby
theSEM,
are shown. On the maps, the white dots show the presence of a chemicalelement,
and the black
regions
- its absence. The distribution of the elements with thehighest
concentration in the initialpowders (Ni
and Cr for SI andS2,
and Cu andAl for
S3)
wasinvestigated.
Fromfigure
6a andfigure
6c it isobvious,
that the basic metal is morehomogeneously
distributed insample
S3. In thissample
the Al-distribution iscomparatively
homo-geneous too, while the Cr-distribution in SI is
quite inhomogeneous.
Table IV. - Chemical
composition of
thedifferent
types
grains *,
wt %.(*)
A, B, C as infigure
4.(**)
Vickers microhardness.The mean chemical
composition
of the differenttypes
of thegrains
observedmetallographically,
estimated
by
the SEM Kamapping,
aregiven
intable IV. In the same
table,
the mean values of the Vickers microhardness aregiven.
As it follows from thetable,
thegrains
in the Ni-basedcoatings
whichshowed the
higher
values of the microhardness havehigher
concentrations ofSi,
Cr and Fe at the expense of Ni. From thecomparison
of the data infigure
6and table IV with those in
figure
5 itfollows,
that themore
pronounced inhomogeneity
of the chemicalcomposition
in SI and S2 incomparison
withsample
S3 is the reason for the wider
scattering
of theVickers microhardness values in the Ni-based coat-
ings
than in the Cu-based.1202
Fig.
6. - CharacteristicX-ray
maps of thesamples,
ob-tained
by
SEM.a)
forsample S 1-Ni ; b)
forsample
S 1-Cr ;c)
forsample
S3-Cu ;d)
forsample
S3-Al.The increased concentration of Cr in the
C-type grains
ofsamples
SI and S2probably
is the reasonfor the increase of the
melting point temperature
of thepowder particles,
from which theC-type grains
have been formed.
Introducing
an airjet during
thecoating procedure,
as was done forsample S2, sharply
decreases theprobability
formelting
of thepowder particles
beforethey
reach the steel surface.This is considered to be the reason for the formation of the
spherical grains.
As it follows from table IV theC-type grains
have thehighest
value of the Vickers microhardness and increased concentration of Cr and Si.Obviously
their increased microhard-ness is due to the increased
melting point tempera-
ture of the
particles
because of the increased Cr and Si concentrations.The
higher homogeneity
of the microstructure and microhardness in S3 is due to the more favourablethermophysical properties
of the basiccoating
metal(Cu)
- i.e. the lowermelting point temperature
andhigher
thermalconductivity (with respect
to the Ni- basedcoatings). Aluminium,
which is the next in concentration after Cu in the MOGUL M-135 Pow- der(see
Tab.I)
has thermalproperties
similar tocopper. This fact
probably
leads tomelting
of all thepowder particles
beforethey
reach the surface of the steelsample
and to a better thermal contact between thegrains
of thecoating during cooling.
As a resultthe
coating, produced
from the Cu-basedpowder,
has more
homogeneous
structure, chemical compo- sition andproperties.
The lowermelting point temperature
of the MOGUL M-13 5powder particles
and the better thermal contact between them after
impact surface,
could be the reasons for the for- mation of a densercoating
than the oneproduced
from the MOGUL M-48
powder.
The results from the
quantitative
estimation of theporosity
aregiven
in table V. It isobvious,
that the relativeporosity
ofsample
S3 isconsiderably
lowerthan that of
samples
S 1 and S2. From the data in table V itfollows,
that the introduction of an airjet
into the flame affects the
microhardness,
microstruc-ture and chemical
composition homogeneity
of thecoating,
but does not affect theporosity
values.By
the thermal waveinterferometry,
a differenceof the
thermophysical properties
ofsamples
S 1 andS2 has been established.
Table V. -
Porosity of
thecoatings.
Fig.
7. - Phase difference as a function of the modulatedfrequency. (*)
forsample
SI ;(x)
forsample
S2. Parameters for the theoretical curve : 28 )JLm thickness of thegood
thermal conductivelayer
and 7 )JLm 2013 for the poor thermal conductivelayer ; 10/ 1-
ratio of the thermal conductivities of the twolayers.
In
figure 7,
thephase
difference between theinvestigated samples
and a blackenedoptical glass,
used as a reference
sample,
as a function of the modulatedfrequency
is shown.According
to theRosencwaig
- Gershotheory [9]
thephase
differ-ence between two
homogeneous
opaquethermally
thick
samples
is 0°. This holds true to agreat
extent for SI. The normalizedphase
of S2changes signifi- cantly
below 50 Hz. Some of thepossible
reasons forthe
photoacoustic
behaviour of S2 may be :- at these
frequencies
S2 becomesthermally thin ;
- presence of pores and
inclusions ;
- presence of thermal barriers between the par- ticles.
In the first case one can find out from the thermal
parameters,
obtained in[5],
that even at 10 Hz thethermal diffusion
length
in thecoating
is more than10 times smaller than its thickness. The presence of pores is found not to affect
significantly
thephoto-
acoustic
signal
in this case[5].
Thus thephase
shift isattributed to the thermal barriers
(domains
with very low thermalconductivity)
between the differentgrains.
Since thedeposited grains
have anelongated form, coatings
with similar structure can be modelledby
alayered
structure. The behaviour of thelayered
structures is described
by
theOpsal - Rosencwaig
model
[10].
The continuous curve in
figure
7gives
the results from theOpsal
-Rosencwaig theory
withappropri-
ate
parameters.
The data from
figure
7 show the existence ofgreater
thermal barriers in S2 than in SIsample.
These thermal barriers are
supposed
to be due to theparticles,
which have reached the steel surface in anunmolten state and have formed the
spherical grains
observed in
figure
4.From the SEM data
(see
Tab.IV)
itfollows,
thatWC and
W2
C were not observed in thecomposition
of the
applied coatings
for SI andS2, although
theirquantity
in the initialpowder
washigh enough (see
Tab.
I).
TheX-ray analysis
data did not showWC, W2 C-peaks
either(see
Tab.III).
This is the reasonto assume that
during
theapplied technological regimes WC, W2 C-particles
do not stick on thesurface and do not take
part
in the formation of thecoating.
4. Conclusions.
4.1. A number of methods for a wide
ranging investigation
of the structure and somephysical
andmechanical
parameters
oftherrmally sprayed
coat-ings
have beenapplied.
Thesetechniques give
information about the influence of the chemical
composition
and sometechnological parameters
of the process of formation of thecoatings
and theirproperties.
4.2. The
coating produced
from the Cu-based pow-der,
is morehomogeneous compared
with thoseproduced
from the Ni-basedpowder,
it has a lower1204
porosity
and with lower average values of the Vickers microhardness.4.3. The
higher homogeneity
of the Cu-based coat-ing
is due to thehigher homogeneity
of its chemicalcomposition
and to the more suitablethermo-physi-
cal
parameters
of copper incomparison
with nickel.These
parameters
allow all theparticles
in MOGULM-135
powder
to be moltenduring
thespraying
process and lead to a better thermal contact between the
coating grains
formed on the surface of steel andfinally
to ahigher density
of thecoating.
4.4. All the
investigated coatings
have apolycrystal-
line structure and their
X-ray
diffractionpeaks correspond
to thepeaks
of the basic metal(Ni
orCu),
but shifted to lowerangles
8. The lastphenome-
non is
probably
duemainly
to the residual stressesarising during
thegrowth
of thecoatings.
An accu-rate estimation and
analysis
of the residual stresses isgoing
to be done in our future work.4.5. The Ni-based
coatings,
which have beensprayed
with or without an airjet,
haveequal porosities,
but differentthermophysical properties.
This difference is connected with the existence of thermal barriers between the
polycrystalline grains.
These thermal barriers have an influence on the thermal wave
interferometry signal
and aresupposed
to be due to the
grains,
which have been formed from the unmoltenpowder particles.
4.6.
By
theapplied technological regimes
the WCand
W2
Cparticles,
which exist in the MOGUL M- 48powders,
do not adhere to the steel surface and do not take apart
in thecoating
formation pro- cedure.References
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MORRIS J., PATEL P., ALMOND D., REITER H.,Surf.
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PATEL P., ALMOND D., J. Mat. Sci. 20(1985)
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