Sunday, February 25, 2018

The Overall Methods Of Tungsten Carbide Coatings Application

By Richard Patterson


Tungsten carbide is a chemical compound consisting of various metallic and non-metallic elements which pose cohesive and adhesive properties in their chemical structures. They exhibit the above characteristics when treated under controlled chemical conditions. Therefore, the compound is applied as a coating powder due to their distinct binding properties to form an anti-wear coating to galling, abrasion and fretting. The tungsten carbide coatings are primarily done by thermal sprays to achieve a strong concrete coating.

Several techniques which include: thermal and plasma sprays are employed to get the opted coating texture which primarily depends on the application procedures used. A further coating operation is usually used which is aimed for secondary and tertiary fusibility purposes to produce a stronger metallic luster. It thus portrays appealing results and facilitates consistency in application.

The process of application is usually initiated by a jet of combusted high-pressure fuel gas together with oxygen gas. It is then pressurized more in pressure chambers where it jets out via a small diameter-nozzle at an accelerating velocity in a long gas barrel. It is thus mixed with carbide powder at nozzle point where the two attains a supersonic speed.

The speeding mixture of the powder and the gases impart terrific amounts of the motion energy, including the kinetic energy on the on the injected powder particles. This makes the energetic particles to strike the surface making the velocity to yield zero and also the adoption of the kinetic energy which makes them cling instantly to the workpiece in question. This results in the formation of a very dense, cohesive and adhesive coating. Therefore, low porosity and a high bond strength coating are realized.

In instances where the specific coating is needed, a binder material is chemically mixed with the carbide compound. This yields a harder component with relatively a higher melting point due to its brittleness. The resulting coating manifests hardness and higher resistance to frictional wear. This is centrally determined by the grain size and the volume of the binder material used.

Similarly, the chemical procedure employed instills a greater influence on the coating characteristics and its ability to withstand abrasive processes like erosion, corrosion and wear. Owing to the above features, the coating technique is widely applicable in industrial production. For instance, in paper production where the rolling surface is coated to attain the desired paper output regarding quality and texture specifically.

The coating technology is also applicable to power generation points, majorly coal-oriented power plants. It plays a key role in maintaining the surfaces from adverse conditions like corrosion. Similarly, the coating is also widely used in steel and metal production from the fabrication process to the finishing process. Collectively, it serves as cost reduction technique, and thus it efficiently fosters productivity.

The introduction of these coatings has accrued tantamount benefits in the engineering community. It has led to operational and maintenance cost reduction in the cases of entirely solid plants that involved combustion chambers in their production. Therefore, it has led to obsolesce of other coating methods like hard chromium coatings which are characterized by undesirable attributes.




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