BOOSTing the industrial application of green carbides by thermal spraying in protective coatings

Project Information

BoosT

Grant agreement ID: 784596

DOI

10.3030/784596

Project closed

EC signature date 31 October 2017

Start date 1 February 2018

End date 31 January 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies

Total cost

€ 1 291 750,00

EU contribution

€ 904 225,00

Coordinated by

MBN NANOMATERIALIA SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BoosT (BOOSTing the industrial application of green carbides by thermal spraying in protective coatings)

Reporting period: 2019-02-01 to 2020-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The BoosT project aims to introduce novel advanced materials as alternatives for the deposition of functional coatings (i.e. wear and corrosion resistant) by Thermal Spraying in highly demanding applications, with advantages in terms of cost savings, securing of raw material sources and removing of toxic materials.
Currently the surface engineering processes are based on the extended use of tungsten carbide and cobalt-chromium solid powders (WCCoCr alloy) which are classified as Critical Raw Materials combining a high economic importance to the EU with a high risk associated with their supply. Moreover the provision of Cobalt and WC in EU is expensive and Cobalt has been classified as a toxic and carcinogenic compound, with notable environmental impact and in workplace.
BoosT targets a new generation of materials to substitute WC-Co coatings with a class of innovative and non toxic CerMets and alloys that are not achievable with conventional production techniques for the Thermal Spraying processes. Thanks to the Mechanomade® technology by MBN the industrial production route for innovative green nanostructured powders allows to deliver improved properties in terms of wear resistance, corrosion inhibition, control of chemistry/composition compared to currently available materials.
The BoosT innovative nanostructured materials and coatings enable the industrial deployment of effective solutions in terms of costs savings, securing raw materials sources and replacement of toxic materials.
Novel materials developed among BoosT project are Cermets composed by Iron and Titanium metal (Fe, Ti) combined with carbides as Titanium and Silicon carbides (TiC, SiC) for mechanical and tooling industry and alloys based on metal W, Cu and Ni for electrical and construction applications. Other composite based on metal Titanium have been also made specifically for biomedical applications.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The production plant for volume production of thermal spraying powders has been realized. Bigger reactors with a new design for cooling system were designed and tested for Fe, Ni and Ti based powders. The plant and reactor are able to operate under inert atmosphere according to material being processed. A dense powder convey system has been implemented in the powder manufacturing cycle, improving the handling of powders between process steps for intensifying the process efficiency. A new powder classification system (elbow jet air classifier) has been tested in connection with the powder synthesis plant to improve the current capacity by a factor of 3. The production of the novel powder systems has been validated for 3 main families of powders and green cermets: FeCr-TiC, NiCr-TiC and SiC based composites.
The green CerMet powder have been deposited to develop the thermal spraying procedure for coatings. The TiC based coatings show a wear rate close to the one of reference WC-Co and much lower than NiCr-Cr2C3 coating. This material represents a promising alternative for sliding-resistant applications and when combined with Fe matrix it can be applied in components that do not accept the use of Ni matrix as for example parts of machine systems in food contact environment (packaging industry).
The SiC based cermet (SiC-Ti) coatings offer a good resistance to wear at higher temperature (>500°C) where the standard material can not operate due to excessive oxidation. It can be sprayed also by cold spraying resulting in a hard coating with relevant wear resistance properties.
Other coating materials have been developed based on the input of customers’ contacted during the project. The uptake of Titanium based composites from biomedical customer has been faster than expected. This required to duplicate the production line of Boost material to preserve product from cross contamination and ensuring the quality necessary for the application. Other metal composites based on Ni and Copper material have been developed in close collaboration with customers working on sputtering targets application and electrical industry.
MBN have identified the main job shops as primary users of the Boost powders and developed not only customized material but also provided initial spraying service in order to offer a deposition recipe to be used in the first tests. This is a key service interesting for companies in order to propose application examples together with novel coating solutions. Several companies are interested to use the Boost materials for applications in plunger tips for Aluminum die-casting, components for food processing , rolls for sheet metal working, coatings for erosion and cavitation resistance and companies in the energy sector interested in introducing hard coating by cold spraying.
For another kind of customer MBN is working as coating and materials workshop. These companies are operating in various application sectors that ranges from glass industry, to mechanical industry (i.e. producers of motors, pumps), supplier of building and construction materials, automotive and oil and gas. Some of these are already using the thermal spraying technologies for some of their components, some others want to substitute the hard Cr or are looking for new surface engineering solutions. The main applications being developed are concerning mold for glass processing, customize tools for metalworking and coating for braking pads with wear resistant material.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project achieved the expected results in terms of material production volume increase, definition of procedures for quality assessment and successful implementation of high throughput screening that allowed to identify the materials for the validation cases.
The main advance achieved by Boost is the development of green Cermets for thermal spraying coating that to not contain any hazardous and critical chemical element such as Cobalt. This will avoid the technology dependency from such critical raw material and limit the health risks for handling and spraying Co based powder and the related safety management burden.
The production process of BoosT powder resulted inherently safer for operators but also has been designed to be more resource efficient with an estimated energy saving of more than 30% in comparison with the production of current Co based Cermets reference (WCCo).
Considering the spraying process, WCCo based coating have a typical deposition efficiency (DE) by HVOF of about 35%-40%. By using the green carbide solution by BoosT the DE has been increased by 50%. Thanks to the low density of Titanium and Silicon carbide (60% less than WCCo) the deposition cost are notably decreased if compared to the reference carbides (Cr and W carbides).
BoosT materials can deliver similar properties than WCCo for the specific applications that have been targeted by the project, being competitive in particular in those cases where the presence of Co is not tolerated (food contact application).
Moreover the TiC-based cermets can deliver coatings with higher wear and corrosion resistance than Cr3C2-NiCr, representing a longer lasting alternative with lower costs in the coating lifetime.
The application of green carbides on coating allows a massive cost saving up to 60%, compared to currently used materials, combined with the advantage of using raw materials more environmentally and economically efficient solution.

HVAF gun installed at MBN's spraying shop