The main problem being addressed in the project is the challenge of making thermal spray coatings based on SiC.
Many industrial parts are today coated to be able to resist many different kinds of wear, corrosion and heat. However, today´s coatings are not good enough. In an ideal world, coatings would be made of Silicon Carbide (SiC) – one of
the hardest materials in the world. Until now, however, one has only been able to make coatings of SiC in small vacuum chambers,an expensive method. The preferred method for coating is thermal spray but as SiC has no melting point it just sublimes
when being heated up. Hence materials with inferior properties compared to SiC are now used as coatings. This is the challenge now solved by Seram Coatings AS (SC).
This is very important for society in order to increase lifetime and lower lifetime costs of many different kinds of capital equipment found in for example jet engines, gas turbines, pistons, heat exchangers et cetera. In addition this will have a very positive environmental effect as it is expected to outperform less environmental friendly materials such as chrome, cobalt and tungsten carbide. The weight of for example jet engines will be lower by using ThermaSiC material and will effect in less emissions being made.
The objective of the ThermaSiC project is to commercialise this break-through invention and disruptive technology and enter the EU and US markets for high performance ceramic coatings. The project will focus on two key applications and include some technological development introducing metals into the powder material of Seram Coatings. A successful project will prove the ThermaSiC product for key customer applications, preferably for the two applications focused on in the project.
The overall main challenge addressed in this project, making thermal spray coatings based on SiC, has been overcome and we have several times now demonstrated good coatings based on silicon carbide. However, we met some unforeseen challenges when scaling up from lab to pilot line and when testing with customers - we needed as an example to have a more narrow particle size distribution than expected. This has delayed some of the piloting, especially with regards to heat exchanger plates, but we have demonstrated a commercial application pilot with Hunprenco with success.
All in all, project milestones have been met and we see just as good potential as we did when starting the project. The project has made it far more likely to succeed commercially.
