For more information please visit our website: www.vtt.fi/powder. We are material experts specialized on powder based materials. With Powder Piloting Service we can boost up your development needs and adoption of resource efficient manufacturing and alternative materials for substitution.

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Powder Piloting Service
Material solutions, from powder to product.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
Thermal spraying development (TS)
www.vtt.fi/powder

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Service for introducing new material compositions to thermal
spraying from materials to performance validated product.
 Powder piloting of ceramic, metallic and composite materials
including materials design
 State of art selection of thermal spray techniques available in
Thermal Spray Center Finland TSCF
www.vtt.fi/powder
Thermal spraying (TS)
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland

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 Selection of material composition meeting demands of component
operation conditions
 Specification of powder characteristics in respect of spraying method
and material properties
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Material selection
and design
Powder processing,
modification and
characterization
Thermal spraying
parameters
Coating samples
spraying and testing
Pilot component
spraying
 Raw materials selection
 Preconditioning of the composition
 Powder processing
 Modification of powders to meet process demands
 Powder characterization
 Design of experiment (DoE) for process parameter mapping
 DoE based processing parameter optimization
 Online monitoring
 Coating characterization
 Sample preparation for coating performance tests
 Application and material specific tests and analyses
 Design and optimization of component spraying
 Manufacturing and post treating of component
 Component performance testing (lab and/or field testing)
www.vtt.fi/powder
Development steps from powder to product:
Thermal spraying (TS)

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Is it possible to produce a coating to
serve in the application?
GATE2.
Performance testing reveal actual
potential and need for development.
GATE3.
Commercial availability of suitable
material and powder, evaluation of
tailoring possibility.
GATE1.
www.vtt.fi/powder
Development steps from powder to product:
Thermal spraying (TS)
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1
3
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5
Material selection
and design
Thermal spraying
parameters
Coating samples
spraying and testing
Pilot component
spraying
Powder processing,
modification and
characterization

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 Demands and restrictions from operation conditions
 Wear resistance, ductility, corrosion resistance,
grindability, polishability
 Demands and restrictions of thermal spray process
 Stability in spraying, melting temperature
 Powder properties, flowability, particle size distribution,
dust fraction, density
 Evaluation of the suitability of material and powder to
different TS processes
STEP 1. Material selection & design
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder

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STEP 1. Material selection & design
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder
 Tailored material solutions
 Wear resistance
 High temperature and aqueous corrosion
resistance
 Low coefficient of friction
 Electrical properties
 Thermal properties
 Surface functionality

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 Commercial powder availability with needed properties?
 If not, is tailoring possible
 Processing technologies
 Selection of processing method based on material composition,
spraying method and desired particle size distribution
 Agglomeration, gas atomization, milling, air classification, plasma
spheroidization etc.
 Characterization of properties
 Particle size distribution and morphology,
 Chemical composition and phase structure
STEP 2. Powder processing, modification and
characterization
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder

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Design of experiments Parameter optimization with
on-line monitoring and
process mapping
Coating
characterization
STEP 3: Thermal spraying parameters
Example of Process Map for WC-CoCr: Young
modulus against particle temperature – velocity
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder
TS technology selection
Sample selection
Test matrix design
Sample preparation
Redesign according to
process mapping and
characterization
Modification of the powder

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 Test sample spraying using optimized parameters
 Residual stresses and elastic constant
 Hardness, microstructure, corrosion resistance, wear
resistance, microstructure etc.
STEP 4: Coating samples spraying and testing
Online Particle diacnostics of HVOF process
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder

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STEP 5: Pilot component spraying

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Protection against high temperature corrosion
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder
Probe before exposure Probe after exposure

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Dispersion strengthened ceramics
Improved strength,
toughness and hardness
and tailored wear
performance
Nano Ceramic powders
Nano oxide-oxide composite powder
composition enabling amorphous
coating structure
Praxair HV 2000
HVOF sprayed Al2O3-ceramic coating
Coatings for extreme conditions
HVOF spraying
Improved abrasion wear performance by using nano
SiC addition on Al2O3
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder
Utilizing nanostructures in thermal spraying
- Ceramic coatings
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60
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100
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160
AbrasionWearResistance[mg/30min]

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Nano Sub-micron Conventional
Tailored wear
performance
Conventional:
carbide size 1-3 µm
Nano:
carbide size 100-200 nm
Nanostructured:
carbide size 1-3 µm,
crystal size 100-200 nm
a) b) c) Improved wear resistance by using sub-micron carbide
WC-CoCr -coating in fine particle wet abrasion wear
Improved cavitation resistance of tailored nano-
WC-CoCr -coating
Nano WC-powders HVOF spraying
a) Conventional carbide b) Nanocarbide
Agglomerated & sintered nano tungsten
carbide (50 nm) powder for thermal spraying
Thermico CJS HVOF
Nano WC-CoCr coating
1 µm
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland www.vtt.fi/powder
Coatings for extreme conditions
Utilizing nanostructures in thermal spraying
- CerMet Composite coatings
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5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
Parameter A Parameter B Parameter A Parameter B
Conventional Sub-micron
VolumeLoss-μm3
WC-CoCr
WeightLoss–(mg/120min)

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Wear
of system
Wear test
Coating properties
Applied method Spray condition
 ICP data
 T–V plot
Powder type
 Porosity
 Size
Material composition
 Cermets
 Ceramics
www.vtt.fi/powder
 Erosion
 Adhesion
 Dry abrasion
 Slurry abrasion
 Lamella adhesion
 Coating adhesion
 Stresses & Young’s Modulus
 Hardness
 Fracture toughness
 Crack density
 Feature size
 Phases
 Porosity
 HVOF
 HVAF
 CJS
 Plasma
 Shape  Metals
 Cold
spray
Powder production methods
 Gas atomization
 Spray drying
 Plasma
spheroidization
Microstructure

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For more information
please visit our website.
Interested?
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
www.vtt.fi/powder
TSCF Thermal Spray Center Finland