Award winning – environmentally-safe, high-quality, metal spray process

Citation

(2003), "Award winning – environmentally-safe, high-quality, metal spray process", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 55 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2003.01855bad.006

Award winning – environmentally-safe, high-quality, metal spray process

Award winning – environmentally-safe, high-quality, metal spray process

Keywords: Inovati, Environment, Awards, Metal treatments

Inovati (Santa Barbara, CA) has successfully developed a low-temperature metal deposition technique, kinetic metallization (KM) (Plates 3 and 4). Winner of a 2002 R&D 100 award, KM is capable of depositing fully dense, adherent coatings of a variety of metals on standard metal surfaces without costly surface preparation. Coatings of pure copper, stainless steel, nickel, chromium, aluminum, cobalt, titanium, niobium, and other metals, as well as alloys based on these metals are possible on such surfaces as steel, aluminum, titanium, copper, brass, etc. Additionally, braze powders (e.g. silver, copper, aluminum or nickel-based) can be sprayed out onto parts to be joined and coatings have also been demonstrated on ceramic substrates. The feedstock material for KM is powder. The cost of KM is comparable to competitive processes. Applications include the preparation of corrosion and/or wear-resistant surfaces for parts, machinery and equipment. Decorative coatings are also deliverable. The successful deposition of the highly wear-resistant material WC-17 per cent Co has been of particular interest.

Plate 3 100X micrograph aluminum-based composite coating deposited onto plain carbon steel

Plate 4 KM R&D unit for metal deposition with rudimentary NC control

Since the powders are deposited at well below their respective melting points, the coatings exhibit very fine grain size and one can avoid heat distortion of the workpiece being coated and interdiffusion of multi-layer coatings. Spray forming of such metals as pure aluminum and Al-SiC composite has also been successfully carried out with fine microstructure in the final material.

One successful application has been the spraying of aluminum grounding strips on steel telecommunications equipment racks made by Hendry Telephone Products. Inovati has received federal R&D contracts from the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), US Army, and US Navy. In addition, the Australian Navy recently tested a KM-sprayed aluminum coating on a Mg alloy which showed excellent salt-fog corrosion resistance up to 168 h compared to 12 h for a standard chromate coating. Other applications can include replacement of organic plating (e.g. hexavalent chrome).

Inovati is now making an R&D KM spray unit available for University purchase.