Development of a Cu-Sn based brazing system with a low brazing and a high remelting temperature

Objective of the project presented is the development of a joining process for hot working steel components at low brazing temperatures leading to a bond with a much higher remelting temperature. This basically is achieved by the use of a Cu-Sn melt spinning foil combined with a pure Cu foil. During brazing, the Sn content of the foil is decreased by diffusion of Sn into the additional Cu resulting in a homogenious joint with a increased remelting temperature of the filler metal. Within this project specimens were brazed and diffusion annealed in a vacuum furnace at 850 °C varying the processing times (0 - 10 h). The samples prepared were studied metallographically and diffusion profiles of Sn were recorded using EDX line scans. The results are discussed in view of further investigations and envisaged applications.German Ministry of Economic Affairs and EnergyIGF/IGF 18.706 N/DV

Thermally Sprayed Nickel-Based Repair Coatings for High-Pressure Turbine Blades: Controlling Void Formation during a Combined Brazing and Aluminizing Process

Turbine blades must withstand severe loading conditions and damage can occur during operation due to heat, pressure, foreign objects and hot gas corrosion, despite the protective coatings applied onto the turbine blades. Instead of replacing the damaged components, maintenance, repair and overhaul are key to extend the total service life. Besides welding, the repair of turbine blades by brazing is an established repair process in the industry and involves many individual steps that often require a high degree of manual work. In the present study, a hybrid joining and coating technology was developed to shorten the state-of-the-art process chain for repairing turbine blades. With this approach, a repair coating, which consists of a filler metal, a hot gas corrosion protective layer and an aluminum top layer, is applied by atmospheric plasma spraying. The coated turbine blade then undergoes a heat-treatment so that a brazing and aluminizing process is carried out simultaneously. Due to diffusion and segregation processes, pores can occur in the heat-treated coating. In the present study, a full factorial design of experiment was performed to reduce the pores in the coating. The microstructure of the repair coating was investigated by optical-and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the impact of the process parameters on the resulting microstructure is discussed

Coupled coating formation simulation in thermal spray processes using CFD and FEM

This paper deals with the simulation of coating formation in Thermal Spray processes. That means that impingement and flattening of molten metal- or ceramic particles with a diameter of about 50 microns on a rough surface have to be regarded. In this work, this is accomplished use of the Volume of Fluid method. The disadvantage here is that only the pure flattening process can be considered. In order to implicate the shrinking of the particles due to cooling down after solidification, which is responsible for the occurrence of pores and thermal stresses, a Finite Element calculation is done subsequent to the CFD calculation. After the FEM calculation has finished, the newly generated, shrinked particle shape has to be re-imported into the CFD grid. © 2009-2012.DFG/PAK193DFG/BA 851/92-

Oxide Free Wire Arc Sprayed Coatings—An Avenue to Enhanced Adhesive Tensile Strength

Conventionally, thermal spraying processes are almost exclusively carried out in an air atmosphere. This results in oxidation of the particles upon thermal spraying, and thus, the interfaces of the splats within the coating are oxidized as well. Hence, a full material bond strength cannot be established. To overcome this issue, a mixture of monosilane and nitrogen was employed in the present study as the atomising and environment gas. With this approach, an oxygen partial pressure corresponding to an extreme-high vacuum was established in the environment and oxide-free coatings could be realized. It is shown that the oxide-free particles have an improved substrate wetting behaviour, which drastically increases the adhesive tensile strength of the wire arc sprayed copper coatings. Moreover, the altered deposition conditions also led to a significant reduction of the coating porosity

Wear investigation of selective α-Fe2O3 oxide layers generated on surfaces for dry sheet metal forming

To realize a dry sheet metal forming process, α-Fe 2 O 3 oxide layers were investigated regarding their friction characteristics, wear behavior and surface energy depending on different surface qualities of the specimens examined. The oxide layers were generated in a new hybrid batch furnace. The layer generation on all specimens of the tool steel 1.2379 used was performed at a target temperature below the annealing temperature (≈ 510 °C). Friction coefficients were examined with plane strip drawing tests. Wear experiments with oxidized wear specimens with variable surface topographies were carried out up to several thousand strokes per surface condition

Functionality Investigations of Dry-Lubricated Molybdenum Trioxide Cylindrical Roller Thrust Bearings

In addition to using conventional lubricants, such as oil and grease, rolling bearings can also be used with a dry lubricant. For example, the use of dry lubricant systems is necessary when the application of oils or greases is not possible (e.g., at high temperatures or in aerospace applications). The requirements of a solid lubricant are to reduce friction and wear of mechanical contact partners. In this work, a molybdenum-based coating system was applied by means of physical vapor deposition (PVD). The coating system consists of a molybdenum (Mo) reservoir with molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) as the top layer. The MoO3, which is particularly important for the run-in and the lubricating effect, is intended to continuously regenerate from the reservoir via tribo-oxidation. To determine the friction and wear behavior, cylindrical roller thrust bearings were used. Experiments demonstrated that the lubrication system is effective and that the frictional behavior has been improved. On the one hand, the frictional torque of the rolling bearings has been considerably reduced and, on the other, significantly extended operating times have been determined compared to unlubricated reference experiments. Simultaneously, material analyses have been carried out by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The investigations showed that the MoO3 was transferred to uncoated bearing components. This improved the tribological behavior and reduced abrasive and adhesive wear

Advanced high pressure turbine blade repair technologies

Components in aircraft engines and gas turbines are exposed to extreme conditions in order to increase performance and efficiency of the overall engine, hence there is an increasing need for cost-effective and time-efficient repair strategies. Presented here are two novel approaches to the repair of Nickel-based components. The hybrid brazing process involves the application of a repair coating, a nickel-based filler material, a NiCoCrAlY and an aluminium layer, by thermal spraying followed by a heat treatment and combined brazing-aluminizing process. This significantly shortens the conventional repair brazing process and yields superior results. Single-crystal additive repair by laser cladding is applied for the repair of small or large defects in single-crystal turbine blades by enabling monocrystalline solidification of the cladded material by use of a temperature gradient, thereby allowing for the regeneration of these expensive components. The novel approach that combines layer-wise addition of material and laser melting enables the formation of highly monocrystalline structures

Development and analysis of microstructures for the transplantation of thermally sprayed coatings

Thermally sprayed coatings and tribological surfaces are a point of interest in many industrial sectors. They are used for better wear resistance of lightweight materials or for oil retention on surfaces. Lightweight materials are often used in the automotive industry as a weight-saving solution in the production of engine blocks. For this, it is necessary to coat the cylinder liners to ensure wear resistance. In most cases, the coating is sprayed directly onto the surface. Previous research has shown that it is possible to transfer these coatings inversely onto other surfaces. This was achieved with plasma sprayed coatings which were transplanted onto pressure-casted surfaces. These transplanted surfaces exhibited better adhesive strength, smoother surfaces, and lower form deviation compared to directly coated surfaces. Additionally, it was shown that even microstructures of a surface coated by plasma spraying can be transferred to pressure-casted surfaces. This paper presents the development and micromilling of different microstructures for transferring thermally sprayed coatings onto pressure-casted surfaces. In the development process, microstructures with different shapes and aspect ratios as well as thin tribological surfaces are designed in order to evaluate the advantages and limitations of the transplantation process. In subsequent experiments, the micromilling process and a simulation of the coating transplantation are presented and analyzed.DFG/Mo 881/9-1DFG/Bi 498/6-

Young’s Modulus and Residual Stresses of Oxide-Free Wire Arc Sprayed Copper Coatings

Conventional thermal spraying processes are almost exclusively carried out in an air atmosphere, resulting in the oxidation of the particle surfaces and interfaces within the coating and between the substrate and coating. Furthermore, the initial process of surface activation conventionally takes place in an air atmosphere, preventing an oxide-free interfacial transition. Consequently, the application of spraying materials with high oxygen affinity represents a major challenge. To overcome these issues, the present study utilized silane-doped inert gases to create an environment in which the oxygen concentration was equivalent to the residual oxygen content in an extreme high vacuum. By transferring the corundum blasting and coating process (wire arc spraying) to this environment, materials with a high oxygen affinity can be applied without oxidation occurring. For industrial use, this is an interesting prospect, e.g., for repair coatings, as the homogeneity of the composite is improved by a non-oxidized coating. Using the example of arc-sprayed copper coatings, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings were analysed. The results showed that the oxide-free, wire arc sprayed copper coatings exhibited an improved wetting behaviour resulting in a significant reduction of the coating porosity. Moreover, the improved wetting behaviour and led to an increase in the bonding rate and apparent Young’s modulus. Contrary to expectations, the residual stresses decrease although relaxation mechanisms should be inhibited, and possible reasons for this are discussed in the paper

Wertschätzen statt wegwerfen : Energie und Ressourcen sparen durch die Reparatur von Investitionsgütern

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