Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BoosT (BOOSTing the industrial application of green carbides by thermal spraying in protective coatings)
Teaser
The BoosT project aims to introduce novel advanced materials as alternatives for the deposition of wear and corrosion resistant coatings by Thermal Spraying in highly demanding applications, with advantages in terms of cost savings, securing of raw material sources and...
Summary
The BoosT project aims to introduce novel advanced materials as alternatives for the deposition of wear and corrosion resistant coatings by Thermal Spraying in highly demanding applications, with advantages in terms of cost savings, securing of raw material sources and removing of toxic materials.
Tungsten Carbide – Cobalt (WC-Co) materials are currently widely used in Thermal Spraying coating for a wear resistant applications but:
=>Cobalt (Co) and Tungsten (W) are classified as Critical Raw Materials which combine a high economic importance to the EU with a high risk associated with their supply
=>Provision of Cobalt and WC in EU is expensive
=>Cobalt has been classified as a toxic and carcinogenic compound, with notable environmental impact and in workplace
Currently the surface engineering processes are based on the extended use of tungsten-carbide- cobalt-chromium solid powder (WCCoCr alloy). WCCoCr is indeed the most common spray coating feedstock viable for thermal spraying systems (HVOF-HVAF) to provide wear resistance thick coatings.Thanks to the Mechanomade® powder technology by MBN, the industrial production route for innovative green nanostructured cermets powders for thermal spraying will allow to deliver improved wear resistance and corrosion inhibition, compared to currently available alternatives to Co- and WC-based cermets.
BoosT targets a new generation of nanostructured materials to substitute WC-Co coatings with a class of innovative and non toxic green CerMet that are not achievable with conventional production techniques for thermals spraying powders.
The BoosT innovative nanostructured materials and coatings enable the industrial deployment of effective solutions in terms of costs savings, securing raw materials sources and replacement of toxic materials.
Novel materials developed among BoosT project are Cermets composed by Iron and Titanium metal s (Fe, Ti) combined with carbides as Titanium and Silicon carbides (TiC, SiC)
Work performed
Three Major Milestones have been achieved during the first year of activities:
Material Powder Production: Synthesis, classification, resizing and recycling processes for TiC and SiC based CerMets have been developed, optimized and integrated in an efficient manufacturing cycle for powders for thermal spraying with a yield up to 90% was achieved in the PSD 10-45µm.
Coating Deposition Improvement: The green CerMet powder materials synthesized have been employed by HVAF to obtain green coating specimens. The microstructure, microhardness and wear resistance of such coatings have been characterized, identifying the variants and composition of TiC and SiC based CerMet that are good alternative to WC-Co for coatings.
Material Production Upscale: The engineering of process steps and the optimization of the whole powder manufacturing cycle, jointly with activities related to the development of an efficient HEBM plant, allowed to obtain a production plant able to deliver more than 50 tons/year of powder for thermal spraying. The powder production plant in MBN is used to produced the materials that will be delivered to early adopters for their validation in the field.
Final results
During the first year of activities the project achieved the expected results in terms of material production volume increase, definition of procedures for quality assessment and successful implementation of high throughput screening that allowed to identify the materials for the validation cases. The BoosT implemented process resulted safer for operators and resource efficient with an estimated energy saving of more than 30% in comparison with WCCo powder production.
Considering the spraying process, WCCo based coating have a typical deposition efficieny (DE) by HVOF of about 35%. By using the light weight low density BoosT materials the DE has been increased by 50%. This, thanks to the low density (60% less than WCCo), notably decreases the deposition cost per m2 deposited.
The application of green carbides on coating allows a massive cost saving up to 60%, compared to currently used materials, combined with the advantage of using raw materials more environmentally and economically efficient.
Website & more info
More info: http://www.boost-project.it.