Final Report Summary - DEBACOAT (Development of high-performance barrels with innovative gradient coatings)
Executive Summary:
A large amount of plastic raw material is processed by screw extrusion and by screw injection moulding techniques. The degree of equipment wear for these techniques represents one of the issues of greater concern since it determines the economic feasibility of processing, especially in view of increasing filler content of plastics, processing temperatures and throughputs of plants.
The main objective of the project was the development of a set of barrels with innovative internal thick coatings, featuring a compositional gradient along their length to optimize the coating behavior and to better face the different tribological and corrosive environments met during service in the specific sections of the extruder.
DEBACOAT faces important challenges:
- overcome the current trial-error approach for applied research and development of new coating solutions;
- understand the relationship existing between materials and process parameters for obtaining high-quality coatings and improving their properties;
- guarantee reliability and repeatability of the production.
The expected improved performance of the barrels can be specifically achieved by investigating and optimizing the following scientific issues:
- R&D on feedstock powder formulation for each specific working condition experienced in each section of the extruder;
- R&D on the chemical composition of the coating both along thickness (radially - as governed by dilution with backing steel) and also along the length of barrel (as governed by differentiated powder composition and specific melting processes);
- processing the barrels by induction heating and spin casting to achieve controlled zone-melting and solidification of the thick coating with a compositional gradient along its length;
- alternative novel processing of the barrels by laser cladding, to produce compositional gradients along their lengths, especially in twin-screw barrel configuration.
Project Context and Objectives:
In polymer extrusion or moulding, equipment wear is an important technical and economic concern due to the harsh environment that is created in the inner cavity left between the barrel and the screw during material processing. The loose granules of plastics are fed through a hopper into the barrel (see figure 1). For a short travel distance, a rotating screw with a suitable profile generates Archimedean mass transport conditions.
As soon as compaction takes place, in the transition zone, the nature of mass transport changes into a friction-controlled mechanism. There, a film of molten plastic is progressively created due to conversion of mechanical energy and external heating. With increasing thickness of the screw profile and environment temperature along the barrel, the fraction of molten material increases and eventually the channel between barrel and screw is completely filled with molten plastics that still have to be homogenised in the metering section before being extruded through the die.
The barrel environment is an extremely severe tribo-system for the materials involved. Abrasion mainly occurs in the feed and transition sections, especially when plastics with hard fillers are processed. In the metering section, the processing temperature becomes higher and corrosion agents may also be released from the processed materials. Adhesive wear can also be observed, particularly when radial forces lead to direct metal-to metal contact between screw and barrel.
To counterbalance the severe tribological and corrosive environment, barrels and screws are coated with thick and hard coatings. In barrels, hardfacing of the alloy steel structural “shell” is industrially performed by spin casting or similar dedicated processes, whereby a feedstock powder is properly deposited and cast, by furnace or induction heating, while the barrel is rotating to produce both corrosion- and wear-resistant inner layers having a thickness of the order of millimeters. It is important to note that the barrel coatings always have a homogeneous composition along the barrel length despite the different working conditions experienced along the extruder.
To achieve improved properties form bimetallic barrels, the following actions are undertaken in the DEBACOAT project, each one having specific objectives.
- For an improved knowledge of the bimetallic barrel scenario, state-of-art analysis was performed. Based on selected industrial cases and literature, characterization of state-of-the art coatings and of the coated systems was carried out.
- Design of new powder formulations for a number of specific requirements pertaining industrial polymer extrusion conditions. The activities were aimed at achieving changes of properties through gradual modification of chemistry and microstructure of powders, also considering that the actual coating chemistry is set by a progressive dilution of the powder with the substrate steel.
- Setting optimal powder specifications as a function of expected working temperature, mechanical loads, abrasion and corrosion properties of the polymer.
- Development of a new method of barrel processing by furnace heating and spin casting for the manufacturing of barrels having a composition-graded coating, i.e. featuring a compositional gradient along their length.
- Development of new/alternative methods for processing composition-graded coatings in bimetallic barrels by laser cladding, particularly suitable for difficult-to-process geometries such as twin barrels.
- Actions were also devoted to optimize deposition technologies (i.e. laser systems, liquid phase consolidation techniques) and deposition parameters, so as to combine and fully exploit the above innovations.
- Finally, demonstrating actions have been performed by manufacturing a set of innovative barrel prototypes (either with single and twin screws) and by monitoring the service lives in industrial plants so as to gather information about strength and weakness of these innovative products.
Project Results:
During the first period of the project, research actions have been undertaken to define current market and state-of-art conditions by sharing technical information among partners, by analysing literature reports and scientific papers, by conducting specific experimental tests on state-of-art spin cast coatings.
In a following stage, experimental investigations have been carried out to develop new powder feedstock for specific reference environments, also taking into account dilution effects acting when spin casting the inlay alloy inside the inner surfaces of the steel barrels. These activities have been progressed during the second period. New powder composition has been designed especially featuring tailored additions of Vanadium as strong carbide former. The resulting hardfacing layer properties have been measured after solidification by laboratory tests. Evaluation of corrosion and wear properties of feedstock powders have also been performed.
Finally, investigation on dilution of the feedstock alloy by the substrate material has been performed by adopting different strategies, ranging from artificially diluting the powder alloys with pure Fe powders and casting the blend in lab, to melting the feedstock alloys in steel crucibles, allowing to reproduce industrial spin casting conditions. Properties of the materials as a function of extent of dilution have been assessed to gain a full understanding of material properties achieved in bimetallic barrels after spin casting.
Further development has been addressed toward the development of new technologies to produce barrels with compositional gradients along their length. The most successful processing strategy revealed to be the melting of different feedstock powder sectors deposited within the barrel in specific regions along its length by spin casting.
Laser processing was also deeply investigated, first by optimizing parameters, strategies and alloys in order to achieve deposits with sound structure and free of cracks, secondly to develop a dedicated laser head (mini ID head) for the cladding of very small inner diameter barrels, and finally to acquire knowledge on the possibility of monitoring the laser head integrity and the process itself, a requirement of great importance considering the long expected processing times needed when cladding long and narrow barrels, where any visual check is prevented.
Demonstration of the above achievements by on-field testing consisted in evaluating the performance of gradient composition coatings after finishing operation in a real industrial equipment that is currently still in service for polymer part production. Laser cladding technology was also tested by the evaluation of the developed mini-ID head performance and by the development of a successful strategy and related parameter to clad a twin-screw barrel section. Integration of methodology was finally supported by assessment of safety issues and of costs vs. benefits opportunities.
Throughout project duration, especially in the second period, dissemination of results was favoured by publications, updating the website, participation to conferences and exhibitions and by several education activities carried out at the M.Sc. and PhD levels. Grounds for the fair exploitation and ownership rights and have been finally cast by the signature of the exploitation agreement among SME partners.
Potential Impact:
Impact for the SME participants and competitiveness
The DEBACOAT project aims to elaborate innovative bimetallic barrels by developing new hard-facing materials and processing strategies with emphasis on tailoring specific properties depending on the working condition found in each section of the plastic extruder.
These actions have a very broad impact, and they are targeted to improve product performance and generate knowledge on thick coating manufacturing processes at the same time. One of the DEBACOAT primary goals is to offer European SMEs operating in plastic moulding sector new tools for being highly competitive in a sector dominated by few big competitors.
In the equipment for plastics processing sector, feeding screws and barrels working in moderately aggressive conditions (due to materials treated and process conditions) are manufactured with simply nitrided tool steels, thus leading strong market advantages to low-cost labour extra-European countries. When applications become more demanding (e.g. due to the processed plastics containing hard fillers and glass fibers) wear resistance of barrels must be improved by using hard thick coatings that can be only manufactured by selected high-tech enterprises. Improvement in coating performance and costs reduction through more efficient processes and suitable alloys will possibly favor high-tech products against extra-European competitors. Moreover they will stimulate a wealthier competitiveness among EU large companies and SMEs.
Therefore the DEBACOAT research on tailored coatings in the aforementioned sectors, will represent a strategic advantage for the most innovation-oriented enterprises in Europe.
The market size for powder coatings in Asia was estimated to be approximately 1.2 billion in 2005, with China accounting for more than 60% of market share. This sector is estimated to grow between 12 and 14% during next years. The key drivers of the powder coating industry include robust growth in the home appliances industry, rapid growth within the automotive and construction industry, buoyant economic conditions and the gradual acceptance of environmentally friendly coatings.
The innovation on coating materials, coating processes and products, is the key to meet competitive advantages and larger environmental and social benefits. However, concerted actions are necessary: a new technological approach and a new system based on a well-formalized knowledge-based methodology are required. Moreover R&D for SMEs, brought by RTD performers like universities and research centres, will allow to pursue more educational activities and collaborations for undergraduates in the EU area.
The DEBACOAT project supports indeed a network of EU SMEs operating in the coating industry and in manufacturing bimetallic barrels for the strategic sector of plastic molding. The DEBACOAT initiative will allow SMEs moving from more empirically driven processes/procedures into new innovative products and manufacturing processes.
The DEBACOAT project will substantially affect the thick coating industry. In particular, regarding the heavy duty applications, the following sector will be directly and positively affected: the plastic molding and extrusion industry, especially for plasticizing bimetallic barrels sector; the laser cladding and PTA cladding sectors, with reference to new processes and strategies that will be developed and will become potentially applicable to other fields. Indirect but relevant impacts are expected in other sectors such as petrochemical industry, tool and dies industry for heavy duty applications, chemical process industry.
The DEBACOAT solutions will involve the development of new alloy coatings for the plastic industry, in particular concerning the inner bore of plasticizing barrels production, thus forming the so-called bimetallic barrels. Bimetallic barrels are becoming increasingly popular in the plastic industry. The main reason is that performances can be improved and a set of tailored properties can be achieved when the internal alloy selection is optimized as a function of the specific application.
These outputs have a general value for the bimetallic barrel coating sector since the innovation achieved and the related strategies can be extended to other conditions where spin casting cannot be adopted conveniently, e.g in case of twin screw barrels (due to non asymmetry of the cavities) or of conical barrels. In these conditions, laser cladding could be considered as an alternative.
The development of innovative powder formulations, improved technologies and strategies for coating design will bring benefits in terms of materials and energy saving as well as in terms of competiveness of the European enterprises, SMEs in particular. Moreover considering that the global demand is expected to grow at around 5% per year until 2015 (2010, BASF, Global plastics market to grow 5% a year until 2015), and considering that the Western Europe has 23% share in the global market (2011, CIPET, Plastic Industry Statistics), the DEBACOAT solutions will significantly contribute to the European market share.
The petrochemical sector is a further market that has significant impacts from the present project since many of the outcomes can also be extended to this field. Such an industrial sector is mainly controlled by a relatively small number of big companies, even if a large number of SMEs are active in this sector as subcontractors / suppliers. Technically, laser cladding and thermal spray coatings dominate the high-performance ceramic coatings market, estimated to be about 1 billion Euros in 2014 (2007, BCC Research, High-Performance Ceramic Coatings: Markets and Technologies). The market challenge for SMEs is on the need to reduce manufacturing costs by keeping the highest quality with process flexibility and reliability.
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on BBX competitiveness
BBX (Bernex) will take part to project activities as coordinator partner, raising the main interest on bimetallic barrels for processing plastics, in particular for the innovation required to improve performances of inner coating of plasticizing barrels. Processing of modern polymers often implies dealing with materials containing hard fillers or glass fibres that are strongly abrasive.
Exploitation capabilities of BBX are very wide for the foreground of this project, ranging from optimal powder specification, Innovative barrels suitable for heavy applications, innovative coating strategies and optimized technologies for twin screw barrels and conical barrels.
Regarding enterprise strategy, BBX has decided to focus at first on the exploitation of the internal laser cladding and the use of the optimized powder formulation. The work carried out has proven that a layer of optimized alloy can be applied to the bores of a twin barrel with good results. The critical areas, that means the edge zones, have been cladded with no problems and the obtained layer is good in structure, virtually porosity free and does not show cracks. However, in order to be in condition to industrially produce the intended items in a reliable and cost effective way some issues are still to be faced.
- Buffer layer. The coating has been made till now by cladding at first an underlying layer of soft material and then applying the desired alloy. This two-layer cladding is on one side reducing the risk of cracks but on the other is nearly doubling the time needed to make a piece. The first step in this direction is to eliminate the need of the buffer layer. This can be made by optimizing the cladding process parameters or slightly modifying the alloy composition, and in case by changing the type of steel used for the body of the barrel.
- Cladding time. The time required to clad a part are at present very high. A twin barrel section of ID 112 mm per bore and length 300 mm required about 14 hours (i.e. 3.5 hours per bore and layer) of cladding time. This figures must be improved if we want to have a fully market-competitive product. The reduction from two to one layer would be of big help. In addition, an improved cladding strategy based on optimized path could give an estimated additional 20% improvement.
- Process reliability. Last point to be further investigated is the overall reliability of the process. In other words we have to figure out which is the mean time between cladding stops and which will be the consequences on the cladding in case of restart (porosities, cracks, imperfections, …).
Regarding compositionally graded spin cast barrels, BBX realized that barrels with a modification of inlay alloy composition along their length is very promising and seems easy to be implemented into current industrial equipment. Also for this innovation, in order to be in the condition to industrially produce the intended items in a reliable and cost effective way, some issues are still to be defined.
- Use of steel dividers. It has been shown that even without any separation media between different feedstock powders, a gradient of composition can be kept in the solidified inlay layer. The effect of barrel geometry, especially when moving to very small inner diameter, and of other spinning parameters on this feature were out of the scope of the project, but now they have to be investigated for a more reliable implementation of the new technology
- Additional costs and benefits. The additional preparation time required to set differentiated feedstock powder (and in case of the steel divider) creates and extra costs that has to be balanced by saving the use of precious elements (i.e. moving to lower-grade alloys in some regions) in less loaded regions. This particular balance has to be evaluated in order to set the range of sizes and applications where economic feasibility for compositionally gradient bimetallic barrels exists.
Under the assumption that the above points can be reasonably solved and clarified, and based on the results achieved till now, BBX can at present define the strategy for the next future.
From products perspective, it must be once again stressed that laser cladding is till now not applied in the plastic machineries. Even if the possibility has been identified and some trials has been made, there are not products practically available in the market. Therefore we will not expect to face direct competitors. Indeed we will compete against products with similar characteristics made with different technologies.
For this technology, BBX will focus its attention on the following products.
- Conical Twin Barrels. No offer at present available on the market for cladded or coated bore barrels of this type. There is huge interest from BBX for any type of solution in this direction.
- Modular twin barrels for Co-rotating extruders. Most of the co-rotating twin extruder barrels are of the modular type. In fact the barrel is made by elements with length equal to four time the bore diameter. These elements are of three or four types: with no radial openings, with feed opening, lateral opening or both. A barrel is normally 24 to 40 diameters long and includes 6 to 10 elements. Today these barrels are nitrided and monolithic or made in two parts: the external body and a bush. The monolithic type is quite easy to clad. The length is short and cladding operations can be monitored and controlled without sophisticated tools.
- Modular twin barrel bushes. As mentioned above, inserts generally four diameters long are used for the two-part execution of modular barrels. The internal bush can be replaced when worn out and this makes this solution quite attractive for the users. The bushes are available today in full hardened steel or in HIP version. The bimetallic sleeve version is also available but is not popular and the use is restricted to those cases where the other two solutions do not offer enough protection to wear. These bushes can be made by cladding, offering a quite interesting proposal to the market. The reachable market for these items are the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) willing to offer improved wear protection and the spare parts to end-user market.
- Refurbishment. Monolitic modular twin barrels can be refurbished by cladding with big advantages. The first is the reduced cost compared to a new barrel element and the second is that wear resistance can be improved by cladding WC alloys. Here the reachable market are the end users when they need spare parts.
- Small-ID bore barrels. The availability of small bore laser cladding technology will generate new opportunities to BBX. In the plastic machine industry the need of cladded twin barrel elements has not found till now a reliable solution.
The application mentioned above are the most immediate to be pursued. Second level approach could be to refer to other applications in the plastic processing world, or in completely different fields like rubber, food and others.
For gradient compositional bimetallic barrels, it is to remark that also in this case no competitor is currently considering this opportunity and that, from a merely commercial perspective, the idea of having a gradient high-tech barrel that could be sold at competitive cost, appears as very appealing.
For this technology, BBX will focus its attention on the single-screw barrels, tentatively with larger size, to be used in heavy duty applications. Here, the added value induced by the high amount of feedstock powder needed (hence larger saving of costs by changing the composition in less loaded regions), and the potential machining savings would generate the biggest advantages.
Considering the products above listed on which BBX will initially concentrate, a preview about sales was made. The figures given below about expected revenues are referred to the expected order income based on our market knowledge investigations and on contacts with our customers or potential customers during the exhibitions where the Debacoat project has been announced. In other words this is not the evaluation of the total world reachable market but is what we, as BBX company, could estimate to be able to reach with the results of this project. In table 1 the expected sales for single and twin bimetallic Barrel are reported.
BBX foresees at the moment two strategic steps for the future exploitation of the results of Debacoat project.
Technical. From the technical point of view, our ideas about internal laser cladding have revealed to be viable and the samples and the Mini-ID laser head developed are confirming it. A real production of cladded barrels or parts will require additional efforts. Cladding process has to be optimized, cladding costs have to be reduced and all the cladding system has to be made suitable for reliable continuous operation. A complete system to hold and move the warm piece and keep it to the needed temperature and a moving arm holding the laser head has to be implemented. For these activities we will consider to continue the cooperation with the SMEs that might be further interested and with one or more research partners. About compositionally graded barrels, further evaluation about cost effectiveness for several sectors has to be focussed, but the innovation appears close to market implementation.
Marketing and sales. As explained, the products we will be able to propose to the market will have initially two type of customers. The OEMS and END USERS (those running the machines). These two markets are both extremely attractive but they require a completely different approach. We believe that, as of today, a tight cooperation with the SMEs active in the END USER market will be needed. BBX could address directly the OEM market where it has good introductions and presence, while EUR (Euroviti), with which contacts have already been taken, could take care of the END USER market.
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on EUR competitiveness
EUR (Euroviti) is an “added value reseller” that follows barrel producers in the manufacturing chain. In fact, the most important impact of DEBACOAT project to EUR consist on the possibility of designing and developing jointly with other technical partners innovative coatings for bimetallic barrels, with potential future extension also to surfaces of screws (that are not faced in the present project).
Exploitation capabilities of EUR for the foreground of this project will focus mainly on innovative barrels suitable for heavy applications (e.g. gradient coated or laser cladded).
EUR aims to be able to offer customers advanced systems with improved performances (leaving behind the low added-value field of nitrided barrels and taking the direction of high-performance plastication units), leading to significant benefits for plastic extrusion production in terms of costs, productivity, energy consumption, cost of spare parts. Therefore, EUR enterprise strategy will be to offer customers this new technology that currently is not yet available elsewhere in the world and exploit this opportunity to improve its share in markets where production requirements are very demanding, for processed materials with highly corrosive and abrasive properties.
EUR estimates its business to grow by about 10%. As for the reference markets, it is assumed that the share could be progressively improved in Brasil, India Turkey as well as in Italy and France. New International markets could also be opened for EUR among suppliers of large producers of cable, tubes, wrought material, automotive parts and tires.
In figures, EUR estimates that in the next three years, with the help of DEBACOAT, the turnover could increase by about 1 M€ per year. The uptake of these new technologies will allow EUR to become the first player in the world offering such high technology in the field of extrusion process.
Following the DEBACOAT output, the strategic expectation of EUR in a near future is to become with the cooperation of BBX the only company offering bimetallic barrels with gradient composition coatings. Co-operation with GNC is also foreseen to benefit from laser processing and the new laser head to coat twin and conical barrels
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on GNC competitiveness
GNC (GRUPO NICOLAS CORREA Laser) is a service company operating in the field of laser and PTA cladding. The DEBACOAT project will allow GNC to open a new business unit. In fact it will add the developed cladding technologies and the novel high-quality materials elaborated during the DEBACOAT project to its production line.
The Debacoat outcomes will allow the company to enterer directly in the industrial coating sector by acquiring the co-ownership of the technologies concerned optimized powder and knowledge of coating deposition techniques for laser cladding of single- and twin-screw barrels.
GNC enterprise strategy for the coming years will be to improve its laser cladding business unit in the company involving the Debacoat laser cladding mini ID head and the novel materials solutions. Such solutions will be offered to surrounding industries and new customers that are demanding more and more this kind of technology due to the versatility of the laser and the innovative quality of the coatings.
First of all, GNC will search applications which need high abrasion and corrosion resistant properties, or a combination of them. This solution will be offered in the market not only to find new customers but also to recover market sectors that could not be faced before the starting of the project.
The experience that GNC is gaining in this project will increase its benefits, being conservative in 20%, 25% and 25% respectively in the three successive years after the conclusion of the project, once analysing the increasing market expectations. Thus, the consolidated profit after this 3 year period will reach 375.000 € (almost twice the current revenue). GNC Laser is opening a new business sector and it estimates benefits mainly as revenues deriving by delivering new services of laser cladding of bimetallic barrels. It is conservatively assumed that extra revenues would approximately amount to 175.000 € in the three years after the conclusion of the project.
Of course, the fact that GNC Laser is participating in FP7-SME project is something that is also already being exploited commercially and on the technological level.
As a further strategic action for the future, it is to mention that GNC has just had approved a project of the Basque Government where we again will collaborate with Tekniker on similar subjects. The participation to Debacoat project has strengthened and reinforced bonds that already existed. Moreover, NT is becoming a strategic powder supplier also for other commercial activities, starting with the advantage of knowing the team that was working on Debacoat project.
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on NT competitiveness
NT (nt Systemlösungen GmbH) is an enterprise producing any metallic alloy powder that are required for cladding and spin casting. NT took part in the alloy development research work, and aims to keep the achieved technical know-how advantage over its competitors to improve its market position.
NT has now strong interest in exploiting Debacoat solutions in order to apply at the highest level the innovation potential and to satisfy specific requests coming from niche markets. More specifically, NT interests are mainly focused on the project tangible results about improved powder formulations for specific working conditions and on possibility to exploit improved parameters for the cladding of parts.
Enterprise strategy of NT for the near future will be to specialize in manufacturing and selling of special-alloy metallic powder, offering flexibility, custom service and tailor-made innovative solutions or high-value added products. In this frame the outputs of the Debacoat project will allow NT to fully exploit its potential. Specifically, for highly demanding coatings, tailored alloy systems have been developed in Debacoat project which lead to an improvement in productivity and tool life for the specific sector of polymer processing.
New business possibilities are foreseen in the powder market for nt Systemlösungen by the Debacoat project, mainly through new powder formulation developments. The amount of powder selling may be estimated after 2013 in more than 30.000 kg per year, against 12.000 kg in 2010, coming only from this coating and welding market. Due to metallic powder market fragmentation, considering nt systemlösungen specific market position, the reasonable expected market opportunity is targeted to increase the turnover by at least 2 times in 3 years, reaching more than 3 M€.
Particularly, through the development of the new alloy systems, we expect to increase the turnover. This target is expected to be achieved especially by such pseudo-hard alloys such as (NiBSi + WSC) leading to higher productivity.
Strategic partnerships have also been established with some of the project partners (GNC, TEK, PoliMi) also for future and new activities.
Areas of application
The DEBACOAT project was aimed at elaborating innovative bimetallic barrels by developing new hard-facing materials and processing strategies with emphasis on tailoring specific properties depending on the working condition found in each section of the plastic extruder.
These actions have a very broad impact and they are targeted in order to improve products performance and thick coating manufacturing processes at the same time. One of the DEBACOAT primary goals is to offer European SMEs operating in plastic moulding sector new tools for being highly competitive in a sector dominated by few big competitors. It was already stated that equipment for plastics processing working in moderately aggressive conditions are manufactured with simply nitrided tool steels, thus leading strong market advantages to low-cost labour extra-European countries. However, when applications become more demanding wear resistance of barrels must be improved by using thick hard coatings that can be only manufactured by selected high-tech enterprises. Improvement in coating performance and costs reduction through more efficient processes and suitable alloys will favour high-tech products against extra-European competitors. Moreover they will stimulate a wealthier competitiveness among EU large companies and SMEs. Therefore the DEBACOAT research on tailored coatings in the aforementioned sectors, will represent a strategic advantage for the most innovation-oriented enterprises in Europe.
The main expected outputs of DEBACOAT propjet can be applied in several industrial areas such as for:
- SMEs operating in plastic moulding sector, will have tools for being highly competitive in a sector dominated by few big competitors.
- SMEs operating in the coating industry and in manufacturing bimetallic barrels, will benefit from the DEBACOAT initiative in moving from more empirical driven processes/procedures into new knowledge-based innovative products and manufacturing processes.
- SMEs operating in the laser cladding and PTA cladding sectors, will be allowed to implement new processes and strategies that have been developed and will become potentially applicable to other fields of applications.
- SMEs operating on powder feedstock production for the PTA cladding, laser cladding, spin casting, will be allowed to implement new powder formulations that will consolidate technical advantages over competitors, especially against large companies.
- Indirect but relevant impacts are expected in other sectors such as petrochemical industry, tool and dies industry for heavy duty applications, chemical process industry.
The following actions have been performed during project development, also through the consolidated exploitation plan, to bring the project to the market:
- The project validation activities in WP6 as demonstration actions in real scenarios provided a clear view of the final status of the project results, but also provided valuable suggestions on possible improvements related to practical implementation into industrial manufacturing chains.
- The WP2 “requirements definition” analysis allowed to define the different scenarios and suggested further market opportunities and outlined some possible company strategies.
- A detailed analysis of the activities and related cost necessary to reach the final industrialization was performed.
Contribution to policy development
SMEs operating in this field, similarly to large companies, can exert considerable pressures on the environment and on the society through the combined effect of numerous and minor activities. According to the EU commission, SMEs could be responsible for up to 70% of all industrial pollution in the EU (2007, European Commission). Furthermore, a recent survey carried out in France showed that SMEs could be responsible of 40-45% of all industrial air emissions, water consumption and energy consumption, as well as 60-70% of industrial waste production (2007, ADEME). The thick-coating industry has a high impact on the environment and the society, because of the specific characteristics of the production process as the coating processes are highly energy consuming.
Along with the manufacturing chain of thick coatings (especially, but not exclusively for bimetallic barrels in plastic processing), a number of environmentally sensitive aspects have to be considered:
- Synthesis of powders requires additional energy consumption and significant waste over bulk-metal production.
- Cladding deposition processes offer a poor performance mainly due to the powder losses during the deposition, between and 15-40%, depending on the technologic solutions. The release of particulate and indoor air pollution therefore requires additional filtering systems and represents a source of health hazard.
- Significant amounts of carrier and shielding gases (usually inert or environmentally non-toxic gases) are consumed and diffused (especially during PTA and Laser cladding). Chemicals and solvents are also used for the pre-cleaning of parts and maintenance operations, leading to additional emissions into environment.
- Secondary operations like machining/rectifying honing after deposition, aimed at conditioning surfaces and at setting dimensional tolerances, are very critical. In fact they require additional time, rapid wear of tools, energy consumption for machining, further release of suspended particles into the air.
- No strategies for recycling of coated materials are currently being developed, also considering that the coated parts are dismantled or re-processed when the original coating is almost totally worn out by corrosion, erosion, abrasion or combination of these. Hence the coating material is often dispersed into the environment.
- Handling and processing of metal powders also implies health hazards if the stock is not treated with due precautions.
Most of the actual deposition processes are not fully efficient from the energy saving and material point of view. This implies time consumption, unnecessary costs, environmental burden, not only in the powder manufacturing, but also during the processing operation, due to the increasing consumption of energy, compressed air, de-ionized water, shielding and process inert gases.
Another issue of great concern is health and safety hazards. Companies required more safe/secure and efficient deposition processes featuring a reduction of suspended metallic particles into the air, which can be breathed by the workers and can be released into the environment.
Numerical targets to be achieved by the DEBACOAT projects can be roughly assessed by supposing that an increase by 20% of abrasive/adhesive wear rate and of corrosion rate measured on laboratory samples would correspond to an equivalent 20% improvement in service life expectancy of the coated barrels. Such extension of life would in turn reflect on 20% saving in environmental burden related to the whole manufacturing chain of barrels for polymer extrusion (fabrication of steel pipes; synthesis and loss of powders for inlay coatings; energy, consumables and pollution effects generated during coating generation; energy for secondary operations like machining/rectifying honing after deposition). It was evaluated that Europe has an overall production capacity of about 30.000 barrels per year and a current market of 24.000 pieces per year.
Hence, the proposed DEBACOAT project strategy and the specific equipment optimization is allowing to employ more efficient feedstock compositions and hard facing techniques, and will put industries in the condition to determine adequate approaches with optimized process parameters (specifically considering also the above listed issues). DEBACOAT will allow reducing all the aforementioned unnecessary energy waste and environmental burdens, by improving the quality of products, reducing costs and achieving faster manufacturing processes.
Dissemination activities
Starting from first period of project development, the Debacoat logo, common layout of the documents, website (www.debacoat.eu) brochure, ppt presentation of the project and other communication material have been established. A poster summarizing the Debacoat activities was additionally prepared during second period to be displayed on occasion of the presentations of the project for the planned exhibitions (original size: 1.20 m width, 2.00 m length).
The RTD partners in particular have been putting their efforts on publications, with the aim of publishing the results in the best scientific journals and communicate work outcomes at leading international conferences. As agreed, all the publications are acknowledged as the results of the Debacoat research project which is supported by European Commission (FP7-SME under grant 315417). The following is a list of papers presented in journals and in conference proceedings on topics related to Debacoat project.
- L. Rovatti, N. Palamini, M. Vedani, G. Schubert. “Tuning the composition and microstructure of Fe-based alloy thick coatings for heavy duty applications”, presented to the 7th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing. Oulu, Finland (June 16-19, 2013). The paper has been published in Materials Science Forum Vol. 762 (2013) pp 501-509.
- S. Zarini, B. Previtali, M. Vedani, L. Rovatti. “Cracks susceptibility elimination in fiber laser cladding of Ni-based alloy with addition of tungsten carbides”, presented to the ESDA 2014 International Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark (July 25-27, 2014). Paper No. ESDA2014-20623, 7 pages, doi:10.1115/ESDA2014-20623.
- S. Zarini, D. Colombo, A.G. Demir, B. Previtali. “Remote Sensing of Temperature for Laser Metal Deposition of 3D Free Form Structures”, presented to International conference ICALEO 2014, San Diego, CA, USA (October 19-23, 2014) pp 825-833.
- L. Rovatti, J. Lemke, N,. Lecis, O. Stejskal, M. Vedani. “Effect of dilution on microstructure and wear resistance of a Fe-based hardfacing alloy with high amount of carbide-forming elements", presented to the International Symposium: Euro Friction, Wear and Wear Protection, Karlsruhe, Germany (May 6-8, 2014).
- J. Lemke, L. Rovatti, M. Vedani, O. Stejskal. “Progetto EU DEBACOAT: Sviluppo di leghe ferrose e tecniche fusorie per la produzione di rivestimenti resistenti ad usura ed abrasione per estrusori nell’industria dei polimeri”, presented to the National Conference: XXXII Congresso di Fonderia Assofond 2014, Brescia, (November 21-22, 2014). Paper submitted for publication in national journal: Industria Fusoria
- L. Rovatti, R. Casati, A.Emami N. Lecis, O. Stejskal, C. Andrianopoli, M. Vedani. "Effect of vanadium on the microstructure and wear behavior of a Fe-based C-B-Ni hardfacing alloy". submitted to International Journal of Cast Metals Research (2014).
- J. Leunda, V. García Navas, C. Soriano, C. Sanz. "Effect of laser tempering of high alloy powder metallurgical tool steels after laser cladding". Surface & Coatings Technology 259 (2014) 570-576.
Participation to scientific conferences and exhibitions to spread the acquired knowledge, objectives and results at the European and International level was also performed by giving oral contributions to scientific meetings. The following list summarizes the events where contributions based on Debacoat project results have been presented (or will be presented in a near future):
- The 7th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing. Oulu, Finland (June 16-19, 2013)
- Euro Friction - European Symposium and Exhibition on Friction, Wear and Wear Protection. Karlsruhe, Germany (May 6-8, 2014)
- XXXII Congresso Nazionale di Fonderia Assofond (32nd National Foundry Congress). Brescia, Italy (21-22 November, 2014)
- XXXV Convegno Nazionale AIM (35th National Congress of the Italian Association for Metallurgy). Rome (November 5-7, 2014)
- Conference on Engineering System Design and Analysis - ESDA 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark (June 25-27, 2014).
- International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics - ICALEO 2014, San Diego, CA, USA (October 19-23, 2014)
- European Conference on Heat Treatment 2015 & 22nd IFHTSE Congress – Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering. Venice, Italy (to be held on 20-22 May, 2015)
Concerning fairs and exhibitions, in several events, in the stands organized by Bernex, or in a selfstanding position, a stand was made available for the presentation of the Debacoat Project and for the display of poster and leaflets.
1. 23rd Fakuma – International Trade Fair for Plastics Processing. Friedrichshafen, Germany (14–18 October, 2014)
2. Plast Eurasia – Packaging / Istanbul Food Technologies. Istanbul, Turkey (4-7 December, 2014)
3. Alta Brillanza 2013, the Italian Workshop on the Industrial Applications of High Brightness Lasers, 26-27 September 2013, Mechanical Department of the Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy).
4. Expolaser Forum 2014, 14 Novembre 2014, Piacenza (Italy). Italian Conference on the application of the laser technology in robotic industrial applications.
5. 28th International Machine-Tool Exhibition (BIEMH 2014) , BEC Bilbao (Spain) (2-7 June 2014)
Specific diffusion events dedicated to industrial bodies mainly of hardfacing industries and end users have been considered during year 2014 and for the early 2015. Lectures focussed on spin casting technique and laser cladding associated to bimetallic barrel production were given in the frame of a training course on coatings organized by the Italian Association for Metallurgy (AIM) and during a national conference of the Italian Society of Foundries (Assofond).
The main international diffusion event for the dissemination of the Debacoat project outcomes has been fixed on occasion of the European Conference on Heat Treatment 2015 & 22nd IFHTSE Congress – Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering, to be held in Venice, Italy on 20-22 May, 2015. For that international conference, an oral presentation summarizing the main achievements of the Debacoat project is planned with the following title:
- DEBACOAT project: Development of high-performance extrusion barrels with innovative gradient coatings. By: J.N. Lemke,L. Rovatti, N.Lecis S. Zarini, B. Previtali, M. Vedani, O. Stejskal, F. Kubisch, M. Pfennig, F. Brueckner, S. Nowotny, J. Leunda, C. Soriano, C. Sanz, B. Bouaifi, Don Schbieb, C. Andrianopoli, X. Garmendia.
In addition, a freestanding display of posters prepared by partners will be specifically organized for the Debacoat project in the same conference. The planned poster titles and authors will be the following:
- DEBACOAT project: Gradient coatings of Fe-based alloys for extrusion barrels produced by spin casting. By: J.N. Lemke,L. Rovatti, N.Lecis O. Stejskal, M. Vedani.
- DEBACOAT project: Laser cladding of WC reinforced NiCr alloy on inner walls of extrusion barrels. By: J. Leunda, C. Soriano, C. Sanz.
- DEBACOAT project: Effect of preheating temperature on microstructure and wear resistance of a laser cladded Ni-based alloy reinforced with tungsten carbides. By: L. Rovatti, S. Zarini, B. Previtali, R. Casati, M. Vedani.
- DEBACOAT project: Internal laser cladding of barrels with the newly developed MiniID. By: F. Kubisch, M. Pfennig, F. Brueckner, S. Nowotny.
This final event, that will be organized only after the official termination of the project owing to the good chance of having a much wider audience, is believed to be an outstanding opportunity to disseminate the overall project results, targeting not only researchers but also industrial and specifically SME delegates, as well as technical associations and other stakeholders of the specific sectors of interest.
Technical achievements and general knowledge about coating technology for hardfacing is being disseminated to young students during university courses by the teaching personnel of RTD partners at their own university (Politecnico di Milano, Technische Universitaet of Dresden) or at associated academic centres (Fraunhofer Institute and Tekniker). In this context, lectures have been given in master degree and PhD courses in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
In Addition, 4 master thesis dissertations have been presented up to now at Politecnico di Milano and 2 PhD students are carrying out research activities on topics related to Debacoat project, according to the following list.
a. Marco Colombo. “Dilution Effects in Spin Cast Fe-based Thick Coatings”. Politecnico di Milano, School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Master of Science thesis in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology (academic year 2013-2014).
b. Alireza Emami. “Effect of Dilution and Different Vanadium Additions on Microstructure and Wear Properties of Fe-based Hardfacing Alloys”. Politecnico di Milano, School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Master of Science thesis in Mechanical Engineering (academic year 2013-2014).
c. Andrea De Francesco. “Remote temperature sensing in laser cladding processes”. Politecnico di Milano. School of Mechanical Engineering, Master Degree
d. Baran Gürkan Beleli. “PTA Cladding of Steam Turbine Blades for Geothermal Energy”. Politecnico di Milano, School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Master of Science thesis in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology (academic year 2012-2013).
e. Jannis Nicolas Lemke. Development of new alloys for hardfacing layers produced by spin casting (tentative title). Politecnico di Milano, PhD School in Mechanical Engineering (final defence expected in 2016).
f. Stefano Zarini. Temperature sensing in laser additive processes: cladding and laser metal deposition (tentative title). Politecnico di Milano, PhD School in Mechanical Engineering (final defence expected in 2015)
List of Websites:
Project website is available at the address: www.debacoat.eu . A project video is also available from the website or directly from youtube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldixZl5jXY
A large amount of plastic raw material is processed by screw extrusion and by screw injection moulding techniques. The degree of equipment wear for these techniques represents one of the issues of greater concern since it determines the economic feasibility of processing, especially in view of increasing filler content of plastics, processing temperatures and throughputs of plants.
The main objective of the project was the development of a set of barrels with innovative internal thick coatings, featuring a compositional gradient along their length to optimize the coating behavior and to better face the different tribological and corrosive environments met during service in the specific sections of the extruder.
DEBACOAT faces important challenges:
- overcome the current trial-error approach for applied research and development of new coating solutions;
- understand the relationship existing between materials and process parameters for obtaining high-quality coatings and improving their properties;
- guarantee reliability and repeatability of the production.
The expected improved performance of the barrels can be specifically achieved by investigating and optimizing the following scientific issues:
- R&D on feedstock powder formulation for each specific working condition experienced in each section of the extruder;
- R&D on the chemical composition of the coating both along thickness (radially - as governed by dilution with backing steel) and also along the length of barrel (as governed by differentiated powder composition and specific melting processes);
- processing the barrels by induction heating and spin casting to achieve controlled zone-melting and solidification of the thick coating with a compositional gradient along its length;
- alternative novel processing of the barrels by laser cladding, to produce compositional gradients along their lengths, especially in twin-screw barrel configuration.
Project Context and Objectives:
In polymer extrusion or moulding, equipment wear is an important technical and economic concern due to the harsh environment that is created in the inner cavity left between the barrel and the screw during material processing. The loose granules of plastics are fed through a hopper into the barrel (see figure 1). For a short travel distance, a rotating screw with a suitable profile generates Archimedean mass transport conditions.
As soon as compaction takes place, in the transition zone, the nature of mass transport changes into a friction-controlled mechanism. There, a film of molten plastic is progressively created due to conversion of mechanical energy and external heating. With increasing thickness of the screw profile and environment temperature along the barrel, the fraction of molten material increases and eventually the channel between barrel and screw is completely filled with molten plastics that still have to be homogenised in the metering section before being extruded through the die.
The barrel environment is an extremely severe tribo-system for the materials involved. Abrasion mainly occurs in the feed and transition sections, especially when plastics with hard fillers are processed. In the metering section, the processing temperature becomes higher and corrosion agents may also be released from the processed materials. Adhesive wear can also be observed, particularly when radial forces lead to direct metal-to metal contact between screw and barrel.
To counterbalance the severe tribological and corrosive environment, barrels and screws are coated with thick and hard coatings. In barrels, hardfacing of the alloy steel structural “shell” is industrially performed by spin casting or similar dedicated processes, whereby a feedstock powder is properly deposited and cast, by furnace or induction heating, while the barrel is rotating to produce both corrosion- and wear-resistant inner layers having a thickness of the order of millimeters. It is important to note that the barrel coatings always have a homogeneous composition along the barrel length despite the different working conditions experienced along the extruder.
To achieve improved properties form bimetallic barrels, the following actions are undertaken in the DEBACOAT project, each one having specific objectives.
- For an improved knowledge of the bimetallic barrel scenario, state-of-art analysis was performed. Based on selected industrial cases and literature, characterization of state-of-the art coatings and of the coated systems was carried out.
- Design of new powder formulations for a number of specific requirements pertaining industrial polymer extrusion conditions. The activities were aimed at achieving changes of properties through gradual modification of chemistry and microstructure of powders, also considering that the actual coating chemistry is set by a progressive dilution of the powder with the substrate steel.
- Setting optimal powder specifications as a function of expected working temperature, mechanical loads, abrasion and corrosion properties of the polymer.
- Development of a new method of barrel processing by furnace heating and spin casting for the manufacturing of barrels having a composition-graded coating, i.e. featuring a compositional gradient along their length.
- Development of new/alternative methods for processing composition-graded coatings in bimetallic barrels by laser cladding, particularly suitable for difficult-to-process geometries such as twin barrels.
- Actions were also devoted to optimize deposition technologies (i.e. laser systems, liquid phase consolidation techniques) and deposition parameters, so as to combine and fully exploit the above innovations.
- Finally, demonstrating actions have been performed by manufacturing a set of innovative barrel prototypes (either with single and twin screws) and by monitoring the service lives in industrial plants so as to gather information about strength and weakness of these innovative products.
Project Results:
During the first period of the project, research actions have been undertaken to define current market and state-of-art conditions by sharing technical information among partners, by analysing literature reports and scientific papers, by conducting specific experimental tests on state-of-art spin cast coatings.
In a following stage, experimental investigations have been carried out to develop new powder feedstock for specific reference environments, also taking into account dilution effects acting when spin casting the inlay alloy inside the inner surfaces of the steel barrels. These activities have been progressed during the second period. New powder composition has been designed especially featuring tailored additions of Vanadium as strong carbide former. The resulting hardfacing layer properties have been measured after solidification by laboratory tests. Evaluation of corrosion and wear properties of feedstock powders have also been performed.
Finally, investigation on dilution of the feedstock alloy by the substrate material has been performed by adopting different strategies, ranging from artificially diluting the powder alloys with pure Fe powders and casting the blend in lab, to melting the feedstock alloys in steel crucibles, allowing to reproduce industrial spin casting conditions. Properties of the materials as a function of extent of dilution have been assessed to gain a full understanding of material properties achieved in bimetallic barrels after spin casting.
Further development has been addressed toward the development of new technologies to produce barrels with compositional gradients along their length. The most successful processing strategy revealed to be the melting of different feedstock powder sectors deposited within the barrel in specific regions along its length by spin casting.
Laser processing was also deeply investigated, first by optimizing parameters, strategies and alloys in order to achieve deposits with sound structure and free of cracks, secondly to develop a dedicated laser head (mini ID head) for the cladding of very small inner diameter barrels, and finally to acquire knowledge on the possibility of monitoring the laser head integrity and the process itself, a requirement of great importance considering the long expected processing times needed when cladding long and narrow barrels, where any visual check is prevented.
Demonstration of the above achievements by on-field testing consisted in evaluating the performance of gradient composition coatings after finishing operation in a real industrial equipment that is currently still in service for polymer part production. Laser cladding technology was also tested by the evaluation of the developed mini-ID head performance and by the development of a successful strategy and related parameter to clad a twin-screw barrel section. Integration of methodology was finally supported by assessment of safety issues and of costs vs. benefits opportunities.
Throughout project duration, especially in the second period, dissemination of results was favoured by publications, updating the website, participation to conferences and exhibitions and by several education activities carried out at the M.Sc. and PhD levels. Grounds for the fair exploitation and ownership rights and have been finally cast by the signature of the exploitation agreement among SME partners.
Potential Impact:
Impact for the SME participants and competitiveness
The DEBACOAT project aims to elaborate innovative bimetallic barrels by developing new hard-facing materials and processing strategies with emphasis on tailoring specific properties depending on the working condition found in each section of the plastic extruder.
These actions have a very broad impact, and they are targeted to improve product performance and generate knowledge on thick coating manufacturing processes at the same time. One of the DEBACOAT primary goals is to offer European SMEs operating in plastic moulding sector new tools for being highly competitive in a sector dominated by few big competitors.
In the equipment for plastics processing sector, feeding screws and barrels working in moderately aggressive conditions (due to materials treated and process conditions) are manufactured with simply nitrided tool steels, thus leading strong market advantages to low-cost labour extra-European countries. When applications become more demanding (e.g. due to the processed plastics containing hard fillers and glass fibers) wear resistance of barrels must be improved by using hard thick coatings that can be only manufactured by selected high-tech enterprises. Improvement in coating performance and costs reduction through more efficient processes and suitable alloys will possibly favor high-tech products against extra-European competitors. Moreover they will stimulate a wealthier competitiveness among EU large companies and SMEs.
Therefore the DEBACOAT research on tailored coatings in the aforementioned sectors, will represent a strategic advantage for the most innovation-oriented enterprises in Europe.
The market size for powder coatings in Asia was estimated to be approximately 1.2 billion in 2005, with China accounting for more than 60% of market share. This sector is estimated to grow between 12 and 14% during next years. The key drivers of the powder coating industry include robust growth in the home appliances industry, rapid growth within the automotive and construction industry, buoyant economic conditions and the gradual acceptance of environmentally friendly coatings.
The innovation on coating materials, coating processes and products, is the key to meet competitive advantages and larger environmental and social benefits. However, concerted actions are necessary: a new technological approach and a new system based on a well-formalized knowledge-based methodology are required. Moreover R&D for SMEs, brought by RTD performers like universities and research centres, will allow to pursue more educational activities and collaborations for undergraduates in the EU area.
The DEBACOAT project supports indeed a network of EU SMEs operating in the coating industry and in manufacturing bimetallic barrels for the strategic sector of plastic molding. The DEBACOAT initiative will allow SMEs moving from more empirically driven processes/procedures into new innovative products and manufacturing processes.
The DEBACOAT project will substantially affect the thick coating industry. In particular, regarding the heavy duty applications, the following sector will be directly and positively affected: the plastic molding and extrusion industry, especially for plasticizing bimetallic barrels sector; the laser cladding and PTA cladding sectors, with reference to new processes and strategies that will be developed and will become potentially applicable to other fields. Indirect but relevant impacts are expected in other sectors such as petrochemical industry, tool and dies industry for heavy duty applications, chemical process industry.
The DEBACOAT solutions will involve the development of new alloy coatings for the plastic industry, in particular concerning the inner bore of plasticizing barrels production, thus forming the so-called bimetallic barrels. Bimetallic barrels are becoming increasingly popular in the plastic industry. The main reason is that performances can be improved and a set of tailored properties can be achieved when the internal alloy selection is optimized as a function of the specific application.
These outputs have a general value for the bimetallic barrel coating sector since the innovation achieved and the related strategies can be extended to other conditions where spin casting cannot be adopted conveniently, e.g in case of twin screw barrels (due to non asymmetry of the cavities) or of conical barrels. In these conditions, laser cladding could be considered as an alternative.
The development of innovative powder formulations, improved technologies and strategies for coating design will bring benefits in terms of materials and energy saving as well as in terms of competiveness of the European enterprises, SMEs in particular. Moreover considering that the global demand is expected to grow at around 5% per year until 2015 (2010, BASF, Global plastics market to grow 5% a year until 2015), and considering that the Western Europe has 23% share in the global market (2011, CIPET, Plastic Industry Statistics), the DEBACOAT solutions will significantly contribute to the European market share.
The petrochemical sector is a further market that has significant impacts from the present project since many of the outcomes can also be extended to this field. Such an industrial sector is mainly controlled by a relatively small number of big companies, even if a large number of SMEs are active in this sector as subcontractors / suppliers. Technically, laser cladding and thermal spray coatings dominate the high-performance ceramic coatings market, estimated to be about 1 billion Euros in 2014 (2007, BCC Research, High-Performance Ceramic Coatings: Markets and Technologies). The market challenge for SMEs is on the need to reduce manufacturing costs by keeping the highest quality with process flexibility and reliability.
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on BBX competitiveness
BBX (Bernex) will take part to project activities as coordinator partner, raising the main interest on bimetallic barrels for processing plastics, in particular for the innovation required to improve performances of inner coating of plasticizing barrels. Processing of modern polymers often implies dealing with materials containing hard fillers or glass fibres that are strongly abrasive.
Exploitation capabilities of BBX are very wide for the foreground of this project, ranging from optimal powder specification, Innovative barrels suitable for heavy applications, innovative coating strategies and optimized technologies for twin screw barrels and conical barrels.
Regarding enterprise strategy, BBX has decided to focus at first on the exploitation of the internal laser cladding and the use of the optimized powder formulation. The work carried out has proven that a layer of optimized alloy can be applied to the bores of a twin barrel with good results. The critical areas, that means the edge zones, have been cladded with no problems and the obtained layer is good in structure, virtually porosity free and does not show cracks. However, in order to be in condition to industrially produce the intended items in a reliable and cost effective way some issues are still to be faced.
- Buffer layer. The coating has been made till now by cladding at first an underlying layer of soft material and then applying the desired alloy. This two-layer cladding is on one side reducing the risk of cracks but on the other is nearly doubling the time needed to make a piece. The first step in this direction is to eliminate the need of the buffer layer. This can be made by optimizing the cladding process parameters or slightly modifying the alloy composition, and in case by changing the type of steel used for the body of the barrel.
- Cladding time. The time required to clad a part are at present very high. A twin barrel section of ID 112 mm per bore and length 300 mm required about 14 hours (i.e. 3.5 hours per bore and layer) of cladding time. This figures must be improved if we want to have a fully market-competitive product. The reduction from two to one layer would be of big help. In addition, an improved cladding strategy based on optimized path could give an estimated additional 20% improvement.
- Process reliability. Last point to be further investigated is the overall reliability of the process. In other words we have to figure out which is the mean time between cladding stops and which will be the consequences on the cladding in case of restart (porosities, cracks, imperfections, …).
Regarding compositionally graded spin cast barrels, BBX realized that barrels with a modification of inlay alloy composition along their length is very promising and seems easy to be implemented into current industrial equipment. Also for this innovation, in order to be in the condition to industrially produce the intended items in a reliable and cost effective way, some issues are still to be defined.
- Use of steel dividers. It has been shown that even without any separation media between different feedstock powders, a gradient of composition can be kept in the solidified inlay layer. The effect of barrel geometry, especially when moving to very small inner diameter, and of other spinning parameters on this feature were out of the scope of the project, but now they have to be investigated for a more reliable implementation of the new technology
- Additional costs and benefits. The additional preparation time required to set differentiated feedstock powder (and in case of the steel divider) creates and extra costs that has to be balanced by saving the use of precious elements (i.e. moving to lower-grade alloys in some regions) in less loaded regions. This particular balance has to be evaluated in order to set the range of sizes and applications where economic feasibility for compositionally gradient bimetallic barrels exists.
Under the assumption that the above points can be reasonably solved and clarified, and based on the results achieved till now, BBX can at present define the strategy for the next future.
From products perspective, it must be once again stressed that laser cladding is till now not applied in the plastic machineries. Even if the possibility has been identified and some trials has been made, there are not products practically available in the market. Therefore we will not expect to face direct competitors. Indeed we will compete against products with similar characteristics made with different technologies.
For this technology, BBX will focus its attention on the following products.
- Conical Twin Barrels. No offer at present available on the market for cladded or coated bore barrels of this type. There is huge interest from BBX for any type of solution in this direction.
- Modular twin barrels for Co-rotating extruders. Most of the co-rotating twin extruder barrels are of the modular type. In fact the barrel is made by elements with length equal to four time the bore diameter. These elements are of three or four types: with no radial openings, with feed opening, lateral opening or both. A barrel is normally 24 to 40 diameters long and includes 6 to 10 elements. Today these barrels are nitrided and monolithic or made in two parts: the external body and a bush. The monolithic type is quite easy to clad. The length is short and cladding operations can be monitored and controlled without sophisticated tools.
- Modular twin barrel bushes. As mentioned above, inserts generally four diameters long are used for the two-part execution of modular barrels. The internal bush can be replaced when worn out and this makes this solution quite attractive for the users. The bushes are available today in full hardened steel or in HIP version. The bimetallic sleeve version is also available but is not popular and the use is restricted to those cases where the other two solutions do not offer enough protection to wear. These bushes can be made by cladding, offering a quite interesting proposal to the market. The reachable market for these items are the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) willing to offer improved wear protection and the spare parts to end-user market.
- Refurbishment. Monolitic modular twin barrels can be refurbished by cladding with big advantages. The first is the reduced cost compared to a new barrel element and the second is that wear resistance can be improved by cladding WC alloys. Here the reachable market are the end users when they need spare parts.
- Small-ID bore barrels. The availability of small bore laser cladding technology will generate new opportunities to BBX. In the plastic machine industry the need of cladded twin barrel elements has not found till now a reliable solution.
The application mentioned above are the most immediate to be pursued. Second level approach could be to refer to other applications in the plastic processing world, or in completely different fields like rubber, food and others.
For gradient compositional bimetallic barrels, it is to remark that also in this case no competitor is currently considering this opportunity and that, from a merely commercial perspective, the idea of having a gradient high-tech barrel that could be sold at competitive cost, appears as very appealing.
For this technology, BBX will focus its attention on the single-screw barrels, tentatively with larger size, to be used in heavy duty applications. Here, the added value induced by the high amount of feedstock powder needed (hence larger saving of costs by changing the composition in less loaded regions), and the potential machining savings would generate the biggest advantages.
Considering the products above listed on which BBX will initially concentrate, a preview about sales was made. The figures given below about expected revenues are referred to the expected order income based on our market knowledge investigations and on contacts with our customers or potential customers during the exhibitions where the Debacoat project has been announced. In other words this is not the evaluation of the total world reachable market but is what we, as BBX company, could estimate to be able to reach with the results of this project. In table 1 the expected sales for single and twin bimetallic Barrel are reported.
BBX foresees at the moment two strategic steps for the future exploitation of the results of Debacoat project.
Technical. From the technical point of view, our ideas about internal laser cladding have revealed to be viable and the samples and the Mini-ID laser head developed are confirming it. A real production of cladded barrels or parts will require additional efforts. Cladding process has to be optimized, cladding costs have to be reduced and all the cladding system has to be made suitable for reliable continuous operation. A complete system to hold and move the warm piece and keep it to the needed temperature and a moving arm holding the laser head has to be implemented. For these activities we will consider to continue the cooperation with the SMEs that might be further interested and with one or more research partners. About compositionally graded barrels, further evaluation about cost effectiveness for several sectors has to be focussed, but the innovation appears close to market implementation.
Marketing and sales. As explained, the products we will be able to propose to the market will have initially two type of customers. The OEMS and END USERS (those running the machines). These two markets are both extremely attractive but they require a completely different approach. We believe that, as of today, a tight cooperation with the SMEs active in the END USER market will be needed. BBX could address directly the OEM market where it has good introductions and presence, while EUR (Euroviti), with which contacts have already been taken, could take care of the END USER market.
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on EUR competitiveness
EUR (Euroviti) is an “added value reseller” that follows barrel producers in the manufacturing chain. In fact, the most important impact of DEBACOAT project to EUR consist on the possibility of designing and developing jointly with other technical partners innovative coatings for bimetallic barrels, with potential future extension also to surfaces of screws (that are not faced in the present project).
Exploitation capabilities of EUR for the foreground of this project will focus mainly on innovative barrels suitable for heavy applications (e.g. gradient coated or laser cladded).
EUR aims to be able to offer customers advanced systems with improved performances (leaving behind the low added-value field of nitrided barrels and taking the direction of high-performance plastication units), leading to significant benefits for plastic extrusion production in terms of costs, productivity, energy consumption, cost of spare parts. Therefore, EUR enterprise strategy will be to offer customers this new technology that currently is not yet available elsewhere in the world and exploit this opportunity to improve its share in markets where production requirements are very demanding, for processed materials with highly corrosive and abrasive properties.
EUR estimates its business to grow by about 10%. As for the reference markets, it is assumed that the share could be progressively improved in Brasil, India Turkey as well as in Italy and France. New International markets could also be opened for EUR among suppliers of large producers of cable, tubes, wrought material, automotive parts and tires.
In figures, EUR estimates that in the next three years, with the help of DEBACOAT, the turnover could increase by about 1 M€ per year. The uptake of these new technologies will allow EUR to become the first player in the world offering such high technology in the field of extrusion process.
Following the DEBACOAT output, the strategic expectation of EUR in a near future is to become with the cooperation of BBX the only company offering bimetallic barrels with gradient composition coatings. Co-operation with GNC is also foreseen to benefit from laser processing and the new laser head to coat twin and conical barrels
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on GNC competitiveness
GNC (GRUPO NICOLAS CORREA Laser) is a service company operating in the field of laser and PTA cladding. The DEBACOAT project will allow GNC to open a new business unit. In fact it will add the developed cladding technologies and the novel high-quality materials elaborated during the DEBACOAT project to its production line.
The Debacoat outcomes will allow the company to enterer directly in the industrial coating sector by acquiring the co-ownership of the technologies concerned optimized powder and knowledge of coating deposition techniques for laser cladding of single- and twin-screw barrels.
GNC enterprise strategy for the coming years will be to improve its laser cladding business unit in the company involving the Debacoat laser cladding mini ID head and the novel materials solutions. Such solutions will be offered to surrounding industries and new customers that are demanding more and more this kind of technology due to the versatility of the laser and the innovative quality of the coatings.
First of all, GNC will search applications which need high abrasion and corrosion resistant properties, or a combination of them. This solution will be offered in the market not only to find new customers but also to recover market sectors that could not be faced before the starting of the project.
The experience that GNC is gaining in this project will increase its benefits, being conservative in 20%, 25% and 25% respectively in the three successive years after the conclusion of the project, once analysing the increasing market expectations. Thus, the consolidated profit after this 3 year period will reach 375.000 € (almost twice the current revenue). GNC Laser is opening a new business sector and it estimates benefits mainly as revenues deriving by delivering new services of laser cladding of bimetallic barrels. It is conservatively assumed that extra revenues would approximately amount to 175.000 € in the three years after the conclusion of the project.
Of course, the fact that GNC Laser is participating in FP7-SME project is something that is also already being exploited commercially and on the technological level.
As a further strategic action for the future, it is to mention that GNC has just had approved a project of the Basque Government where we again will collaborate with Tekniker on similar subjects. The participation to Debacoat project has strengthened and reinforced bonds that already existed. Moreover, NT is becoming a strategic powder supplier also for other commercial activities, starting with the advantage of knowing the team that was working on Debacoat project.
Specific impacts of DEBACOAT on NT competitiveness
NT (nt Systemlösungen GmbH) is an enterprise producing any metallic alloy powder that are required for cladding and spin casting. NT took part in the alloy development research work, and aims to keep the achieved technical know-how advantage over its competitors to improve its market position.
NT has now strong interest in exploiting Debacoat solutions in order to apply at the highest level the innovation potential and to satisfy specific requests coming from niche markets. More specifically, NT interests are mainly focused on the project tangible results about improved powder formulations for specific working conditions and on possibility to exploit improved parameters for the cladding of parts.
Enterprise strategy of NT for the near future will be to specialize in manufacturing and selling of special-alloy metallic powder, offering flexibility, custom service and tailor-made innovative solutions or high-value added products. In this frame the outputs of the Debacoat project will allow NT to fully exploit its potential. Specifically, for highly demanding coatings, tailored alloy systems have been developed in Debacoat project which lead to an improvement in productivity and tool life for the specific sector of polymer processing.
New business possibilities are foreseen in the powder market for nt Systemlösungen by the Debacoat project, mainly through new powder formulation developments. The amount of powder selling may be estimated after 2013 in more than 30.000 kg per year, against 12.000 kg in 2010, coming only from this coating and welding market. Due to metallic powder market fragmentation, considering nt systemlösungen specific market position, the reasonable expected market opportunity is targeted to increase the turnover by at least 2 times in 3 years, reaching more than 3 M€.
Particularly, through the development of the new alloy systems, we expect to increase the turnover. This target is expected to be achieved especially by such pseudo-hard alloys such as (NiBSi + WSC) leading to higher productivity.
Strategic partnerships have also been established with some of the project partners (GNC, TEK, PoliMi) also for future and new activities.
Areas of application
The DEBACOAT project was aimed at elaborating innovative bimetallic barrels by developing new hard-facing materials and processing strategies with emphasis on tailoring specific properties depending on the working condition found in each section of the plastic extruder.
These actions have a very broad impact and they are targeted in order to improve products performance and thick coating manufacturing processes at the same time. One of the DEBACOAT primary goals is to offer European SMEs operating in plastic moulding sector new tools for being highly competitive in a sector dominated by few big competitors. It was already stated that equipment for plastics processing working in moderately aggressive conditions are manufactured with simply nitrided tool steels, thus leading strong market advantages to low-cost labour extra-European countries. However, when applications become more demanding wear resistance of barrels must be improved by using thick hard coatings that can be only manufactured by selected high-tech enterprises. Improvement in coating performance and costs reduction through more efficient processes and suitable alloys will favour high-tech products against extra-European competitors. Moreover they will stimulate a wealthier competitiveness among EU large companies and SMEs. Therefore the DEBACOAT research on tailored coatings in the aforementioned sectors, will represent a strategic advantage for the most innovation-oriented enterprises in Europe.
The main expected outputs of DEBACOAT propjet can be applied in several industrial areas such as for:
- SMEs operating in plastic moulding sector, will have tools for being highly competitive in a sector dominated by few big competitors.
- SMEs operating in the coating industry and in manufacturing bimetallic barrels, will benefit from the DEBACOAT initiative in moving from more empirical driven processes/procedures into new knowledge-based innovative products and manufacturing processes.
- SMEs operating in the laser cladding and PTA cladding sectors, will be allowed to implement new processes and strategies that have been developed and will become potentially applicable to other fields of applications.
- SMEs operating on powder feedstock production for the PTA cladding, laser cladding, spin casting, will be allowed to implement new powder formulations that will consolidate technical advantages over competitors, especially against large companies.
- Indirect but relevant impacts are expected in other sectors such as petrochemical industry, tool and dies industry for heavy duty applications, chemical process industry.
The following actions have been performed during project development, also through the consolidated exploitation plan, to bring the project to the market:
- The project validation activities in WP6 as demonstration actions in real scenarios provided a clear view of the final status of the project results, but also provided valuable suggestions on possible improvements related to practical implementation into industrial manufacturing chains.
- The WP2 “requirements definition” analysis allowed to define the different scenarios and suggested further market opportunities and outlined some possible company strategies.
- A detailed analysis of the activities and related cost necessary to reach the final industrialization was performed.
Contribution to policy development
SMEs operating in this field, similarly to large companies, can exert considerable pressures on the environment and on the society through the combined effect of numerous and minor activities. According to the EU commission, SMEs could be responsible for up to 70% of all industrial pollution in the EU (2007, European Commission). Furthermore, a recent survey carried out in France showed that SMEs could be responsible of 40-45% of all industrial air emissions, water consumption and energy consumption, as well as 60-70% of industrial waste production (2007, ADEME). The thick-coating industry has a high impact on the environment and the society, because of the specific characteristics of the production process as the coating processes are highly energy consuming.
Along with the manufacturing chain of thick coatings (especially, but not exclusively for bimetallic barrels in plastic processing), a number of environmentally sensitive aspects have to be considered:
- Synthesis of powders requires additional energy consumption and significant waste over bulk-metal production.
- Cladding deposition processes offer a poor performance mainly due to the powder losses during the deposition, between and 15-40%, depending on the technologic solutions. The release of particulate and indoor air pollution therefore requires additional filtering systems and represents a source of health hazard.
- Significant amounts of carrier and shielding gases (usually inert or environmentally non-toxic gases) are consumed and diffused (especially during PTA and Laser cladding). Chemicals and solvents are also used for the pre-cleaning of parts and maintenance operations, leading to additional emissions into environment.
- Secondary operations like machining/rectifying honing after deposition, aimed at conditioning surfaces and at setting dimensional tolerances, are very critical. In fact they require additional time, rapid wear of tools, energy consumption for machining, further release of suspended particles into the air.
- No strategies for recycling of coated materials are currently being developed, also considering that the coated parts are dismantled or re-processed when the original coating is almost totally worn out by corrosion, erosion, abrasion or combination of these. Hence the coating material is often dispersed into the environment.
- Handling and processing of metal powders also implies health hazards if the stock is not treated with due precautions.
Most of the actual deposition processes are not fully efficient from the energy saving and material point of view. This implies time consumption, unnecessary costs, environmental burden, not only in the powder manufacturing, but also during the processing operation, due to the increasing consumption of energy, compressed air, de-ionized water, shielding and process inert gases.
Another issue of great concern is health and safety hazards. Companies required more safe/secure and efficient deposition processes featuring a reduction of suspended metallic particles into the air, which can be breathed by the workers and can be released into the environment.
Numerical targets to be achieved by the DEBACOAT projects can be roughly assessed by supposing that an increase by 20% of abrasive/adhesive wear rate and of corrosion rate measured on laboratory samples would correspond to an equivalent 20% improvement in service life expectancy of the coated barrels. Such extension of life would in turn reflect on 20% saving in environmental burden related to the whole manufacturing chain of barrels for polymer extrusion (fabrication of steel pipes; synthesis and loss of powders for inlay coatings; energy, consumables and pollution effects generated during coating generation; energy for secondary operations like machining/rectifying honing after deposition). It was evaluated that Europe has an overall production capacity of about 30.000 barrels per year and a current market of 24.000 pieces per year.
Hence, the proposed DEBACOAT project strategy and the specific equipment optimization is allowing to employ more efficient feedstock compositions and hard facing techniques, and will put industries in the condition to determine adequate approaches with optimized process parameters (specifically considering also the above listed issues). DEBACOAT will allow reducing all the aforementioned unnecessary energy waste and environmental burdens, by improving the quality of products, reducing costs and achieving faster manufacturing processes.
Dissemination activities
Starting from first period of project development, the Debacoat logo, common layout of the documents, website (www.debacoat.eu) brochure, ppt presentation of the project and other communication material have been established. A poster summarizing the Debacoat activities was additionally prepared during second period to be displayed on occasion of the presentations of the project for the planned exhibitions (original size: 1.20 m width, 2.00 m length).
The RTD partners in particular have been putting their efforts on publications, with the aim of publishing the results in the best scientific journals and communicate work outcomes at leading international conferences. As agreed, all the publications are acknowledged as the results of the Debacoat research project which is supported by European Commission (FP7-SME under grant 315417). The following is a list of papers presented in journals and in conference proceedings on topics related to Debacoat project.
- L. Rovatti, N. Palamini, M. Vedani, G. Schubert. “Tuning the composition and microstructure of Fe-based alloy thick coatings for heavy duty applications”, presented to the 7th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing. Oulu, Finland (June 16-19, 2013). The paper has been published in Materials Science Forum Vol. 762 (2013) pp 501-509.
- S. Zarini, B. Previtali, M. Vedani, L. Rovatti. “Cracks susceptibility elimination in fiber laser cladding of Ni-based alloy with addition of tungsten carbides”, presented to the ESDA 2014 International Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark (July 25-27, 2014). Paper No. ESDA2014-20623, 7 pages, doi:10.1115/ESDA2014-20623.
- S. Zarini, D. Colombo, A.G. Demir, B. Previtali. “Remote Sensing of Temperature for Laser Metal Deposition of 3D Free Form Structures”, presented to International conference ICALEO 2014, San Diego, CA, USA (October 19-23, 2014) pp 825-833.
- L. Rovatti, J. Lemke, N,. Lecis, O. Stejskal, M. Vedani. “Effect of dilution on microstructure and wear resistance of a Fe-based hardfacing alloy with high amount of carbide-forming elements", presented to the International Symposium: Euro Friction, Wear and Wear Protection, Karlsruhe, Germany (May 6-8, 2014).
- J. Lemke, L. Rovatti, M. Vedani, O. Stejskal. “Progetto EU DEBACOAT: Sviluppo di leghe ferrose e tecniche fusorie per la produzione di rivestimenti resistenti ad usura ed abrasione per estrusori nell’industria dei polimeri”, presented to the National Conference: XXXII Congresso di Fonderia Assofond 2014, Brescia, (November 21-22, 2014). Paper submitted for publication in national journal: Industria Fusoria
- L. Rovatti, R. Casati, A.Emami N. Lecis, O. Stejskal, C. Andrianopoli, M. Vedani. "Effect of vanadium on the microstructure and wear behavior of a Fe-based C-B-Ni hardfacing alloy". submitted to International Journal of Cast Metals Research (2014).
- J. Leunda, V. García Navas, C. Soriano, C. Sanz. "Effect of laser tempering of high alloy powder metallurgical tool steels after laser cladding". Surface & Coatings Technology 259 (2014) 570-576.
Participation to scientific conferences and exhibitions to spread the acquired knowledge, objectives and results at the European and International level was also performed by giving oral contributions to scientific meetings. The following list summarizes the events where contributions based on Debacoat project results have been presented (or will be presented in a near future):
- The 7th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing. Oulu, Finland (June 16-19, 2013)
- Euro Friction - European Symposium and Exhibition on Friction, Wear and Wear Protection. Karlsruhe, Germany (May 6-8, 2014)
- XXXII Congresso Nazionale di Fonderia Assofond (32nd National Foundry Congress). Brescia, Italy (21-22 November, 2014)
- XXXV Convegno Nazionale AIM (35th National Congress of the Italian Association for Metallurgy). Rome (November 5-7, 2014)
- Conference on Engineering System Design and Analysis - ESDA 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark (June 25-27, 2014).
- International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics - ICALEO 2014, San Diego, CA, USA (October 19-23, 2014)
- European Conference on Heat Treatment 2015 & 22nd IFHTSE Congress – Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering. Venice, Italy (to be held on 20-22 May, 2015)
Concerning fairs and exhibitions, in several events, in the stands organized by Bernex, or in a selfstanding position, a stand was made available for the presentation of the Debacoat Project and for the display of poster and leaflets.
1. 23rd Fakuma – International Trade Fair for Plastics Processing. Friedrichshafen, Germany (14–18 October, 2014)
2. Plast Eurasia – Packaging / Istanbul Food Technologies. Istanbul, Turkey (4-7 December, 2014)
3. Alta Brillanza 2013, the Italian Workshop on the Industrial Applications of High Brightness Lasers, 26-27 September 2013, Mechanical Department of the Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy).
4. Expolaser Forum 2014, 14 Novembre 2014, Piacenza (Italy). Italian Conference on the application of the laser technology in robotic industrial applications.
5. 28th International Machine-Tool Exhibition (BIEMH 2014) , BEC Bilbao (Spain) (2-7 June 2014)
Specific diffusion events dedicated to industrial bodies mainly of hardfacing industries and end users have been considered during year 2014 and for the early 2015. Lectures focussed on spin casting technique and laser cladding associated to bimetallic barrel production were given in the frame of a training course on coatings organized by the Italian Association for Metallurgy (AIM) and during a national conference of the Italian Society of Foundries (Assofond).
The main international diffusion event for the dissemination of the Debacoat project outcomes has been fixed on occasion of the European Conference on Heat Treatment 2015 & 22nd IFHTSE Congress – Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering, to be held in Venice, Italy on 20-22 May, 2015. For that international conference, an oral presentation summarizing the main achievements of the Debacoat project is planned with the following title:
- DEBACOAT project: Development of high-performance extrusion barrels with innovative gradient coatings. By: J.N. Lemke,L. Rovatti, N.Lecis S. Zarini, B. Previtali, M. Vedani, O. Stejskal, F. Kubisch, M. Pfennig, F. Brueckner, S. Nowotny, J. Leunda, C. Soriano, C. Sanz, B. Bouaifi, Don Schbieb, C. Andrianopoli, X. Garmendia.
In addition, a freestanding display of posters prepared by partners will be specifically organized for the Debacoat project in the same conference. The planned poster titles and authors will be the following:
- DEBACOAT project: Gradient coatings of Fe-based alloys for extrusion barrels produced by spin casting. By: J.N. Lemke,L. Rovatti, N.Lecis O. Stejskal, M. Vedani.
- DEBACOAT project: Laser cladding of WC reinforced NiCr alloy on inner walls of extrusion barrels. By: J. Leunda, C. Soriano, C. Sanz.
- DEBACOAT project: Effect of preheating temperature on microstructure and wear resistance of a laser cladded Ni-based alloy reinforced with tungsten carbides. By: L. Rovatti, S. Zarini, B. Previtali, R. Casati, M. Vedani.
- DEBACOAT project: Internal laser cladding of barrels with the newly developed MiniID. By: F. Kubisch, M. Pfennig, F. Brueckner, S. Nowotny.
This final event, that will be organized only after the official termination of the project owing to the good chance of having a much wider audience, is believed to be an outstanding opportunity to disseminate the overall project results, targeting not only researchers but also industrial and specifically SME delegates, as well as technical associations and other stakeholders of the specific sectors of interest.
Technical achievements and general knowledge about coating technology for hardfacing is being disseminated to young students during university courses by the teaching personnel of RTD partners at their own university (Politecnico di Milano, Technische Universitaet of Dresden) or at associated academic centres (Fraunhofer Institute and Tekniker). In this context, lectures have been given in master degree and PhD courses in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
In Addition, 4 master thesis dissertations have been presented up to now at Politecnico di Milano and 2 PhD students are carrying out research activities on topics related to Debacoat project, according to the following list.
a. Marco Colombo. “Dilution Effects in Spin Cast Fe-based Thick Coatings”. Politecnico di Milano, School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Master of Science thesis in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology (academic year 2013-2014).
b. Alireza Emami. “Effect of Dilution and Different Vanadium Additions on Microstructure and Wear Properties of Fe-based Hardfacing Alloys”. Politecnico di Milano, School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Master of Science thesis in Mechanical Engineering (academic year 2013-2014).
c. Andrea De Francesco. “Remote temperature sensing in laser cladding processes”. Politecnico di Milano. School of Mechanical Engineering, Master Degree
d. Baran Gürkan Beleli. “PTA Cladding of Steam Turbine Blades for Geothermal Energy”. Politecnico di Milano, School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Master of Science thesis in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology (academic year 2012-2013).
e. Jannis Nicolas Lemke. Development of new alloys for hardfacing layers produced by spin casting (tentative title). Politecnico di Milano, PhD School in Mechanical Engineering (final defence expected in 2016).
f. Stefano Zarini. Temperature sensing in laser additive processes: cladding and laser metal deposition (tentative title). Politecnico di Milano, PhD School in Mechanical Engineering (final defence expected in 2015)
List of Websites:
Project website is available at the address: www.debacoat.eu . A project video is also available from the website or directly from youtube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldixZl5jXY