Resumen de Study of the structure-properties relationship of Fe-Al, Nb-Al and Ni-Ti intermetallic coatings obtained by thermal spray technologies
Núria Cinca Luis
Due to the current interest on intermetallic compounds (IMCs), specially for their use at high temperatures being capable to substitute superalloys and, for the lately improvement of their lack of ductility, this work evaluates the use of intermetallics as coatings by using Thermal Spray technologies, thus providing improved surface component properties. The IMCs chosen for this study have been the following: FeAl, NiTi and NbAl3. Regarding their high Al contents, the aluminides present low densities and the possibility to form protective alumina compact layers against hostile environments. NiTi was selected as an interesting intermetallic for its shape memory properties and excellent corrosion resistance.FeAl and NbAl3 coatings were produced by means of High Velocity Oxygen Fuel process trying to optimize the spraying conditions in order to achieve the lowest oxidation and porosity content as possible. On the other hand, Air Plasma Spraying and Vaccum Plasma Spraying were also evaluated for the production of NiTi coatings; in that case, the main purpose was the prevention of titanium oxidation and retention of autenitic NiTi phase, so that its shape memory properties could be preserved. The coatings were properly characterized by Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopies and X-ray diffraction analysis. Afterwards, they were tested in laboratory conditions in order to study the mechanical properties such as hardness, sliding and abrasion wear and, corrosion and oxidation resistance.FeAl coatings (obtained from a mechanically alloyed and a mechanically milled powders) were compared in terms of oxidation and wear resistance. A higher hardness was found to be correlated with a higher abrasion resistance. Iron aluminide coatings showed to have a fairly good oxidation resistance up to 900ºC. The uniform oxide scale without significantly spallation guarantees a reliable performance at such temperature. The NbAl3 coating was about 20% harder than the hardest nitinol and iron aluminide coatings. Nb-Al based deposits displayed more wear damage than iron aluminides. When these coatings were oxidized, they followed a logarithmic behaviour but with a much more rapid kinetics than the iron aluminide coatings. At 900ºC, whereas the steady state is reached for a weight increase below 10% in the different Fe-Al coatings, the corresponding to the Nb-Al coatings increases up to 40% due to the pesting phenomenon.With regard to the NiTi coatings, those obtained from HVOF presented the highest retention of original austenitic phase. The hardness of such coatings is much higher than that of the iron aluminide coatings and a correlation was also found with their abrasion resistance. Finally, the as-sprayed VPS and HVOF coatings exhibitted superior corrosion resistance than APS in terms of corrosion potentials and current densities.
