Characterisation of Inconel 625 Coatings Deposited by Cold Spray

Abstract

Abstract The high strength nickel alloys, and in particular Inconel type alloys, are extensively used in several applications, such as aeronautics and petroleum industry, thanks to the combination of their high mechanical properties and their thermal and chemical resistance. In particular Inconel 625 is already used in oil pipelines and pipelines of large thermal plants, and the possibility to replace high cost bulk Inconel parts with Inconel coated steel parts is of great interest. On this context the first topic to allow the use of coated parts instead of bulk Inconel is the capability to provide high corrosion and thermal resistance. The aim of this study is to investigate the capability of Coldspray in the deposition of high strength materials, such as hard nickel alloys, for corrosion protection, and to compare the corrosion behaviour of Coldspray coatings with commercial HVOF deposited coatings. Inconel 625 coatings were deposited by using CGT Kinetic3000 deposition system with nitrogen as carrier gas on AISI316L flat substrates. The coating thickness ranges between 0.3 and 1.0 mm. Different feedstock materials were used and the effect of powder size distribution on the growth capability, as well on coating microstructure and porosity, were evaluated. The corrosion behaviour of Coldspray coatings were studied by electrochemical potentiondynamic analysis and compared with the behaviour of commercially available coatings deposited by HVOF that could be considered as a high-quality benchmark. In particular, the effects of the different coating microstructures due to the different deposition processes were related with the corrosion resistance. Further development and key features are finally outlined in order to candidate the Coldspray as promising technology for the deposition of high-strength nickel alloys.