Physical and Mechanical Properties of Twin-Wire Arc Spray and Wire Flame Spray Coating on Carbon Steel Surface

Abstract

Thermal Spray Coating is a material surface engineering process, where the coating material is heated until it melts then the melt is pushed with high-pressure air as individual particles or droplets to a surface. This study compares two thermal spray coating methods, twin-wire arc spray and wire flame spray to measure the level of hardness, coating strength and good quality of the coating and porosity. This study used medium carbon steel AISI 1045 as substrate and coating material with FeCrMnNiCSiSP alloy elements (AISI 420). Testing mechanical properties were undergone by hardness testing and pull-off test to determine the coating's adhesive strength. The microstructures were observed using a microscope to test the physical properties. After analyzing the research results, it can be concluded that the twin-wire arc spray coating process produces an adequate level of hardness and coating strength. Twin-wire arc spray can increase the percentage value of substrate surface hardness by 50,56 % and the average coating strength of 21,345 MPa. The microstructure observation results on the coating show that the coating results from twin-wire arc spray have good coating quality with the bonds between the elements contained in the FeCrMnNiCSiSP wire which are bonded to each other and form layered layers and minimal porosity in the coating.