Development of high pressure cold spray coatings of tungsten carbide composites

Abstract

The current study used a cold spray technique to create WC-Co cermet coatings. In hydroturbine blade applications, deposition of WC-Co cermets using the cold spray technique is difficult. However, the Cold spray method may totally eliminate WC segment degradation as associated to other conservative techniques like laser cladding, plasma spraying and high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF). In the present work, nitrogen gas was used to spray WC-12Co powder with a cold spray solution. SEM, EDS, and XRD were used to demonstrate microstructure and do phase analysis. The results suggest that applying cold spray has no effect on the WC phase. By applying cold spray to pre-heated WC-12Co powder with low-density particles, it was effectively applied to a solid substrate with higher hardness and lower porosity.