Electro-spark deposition technology

Conference · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:330689

Johnson, R N ^[1]

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1. Pacific Northwest National Lab., Richland, WA (United States)

Electro-Spark Deposition (ESD) is a micro-welding process that uses short duration, high-current electrical pulses to deposit or alloy a consumable electrode material onto a metallic substrate. The ESD process was developed to produce coatings for use in severe environments where most other coatings fail. Because of the exceptional damage resistance of these coatings, and the versatility of the process to apply a wide variety of alloys, intermetallics, and cermets to metal surfaces, the ESD process has been designated critical to the life and economy of the advanced fossil energy systems as the higher temperatures and corrosive environments exceed the limits of known structural materials to accommodate the service conditions. Developments include producing iron aluminide-based coatings with triple the corrosion resistance of the best previous Fe{sub 3}Al coatings, coatings with refractory metal diffusion barriers and multi layer coatings for achieving functionally gradient properties between the substrate and the surface. A new development is the demonstration of advanced aluminide-based ESD coatings for erosion and wear applications. One of the most significant breakthroughs to occur in the last dozen years is the discovery of a process regime that yields an order of magnitude increase in deposition rates and achievable coating thicknesses. Achieving this regime has required the development of advanced ESD electronic capabilities. Development is now focused on further improvements in deposition rates, system reliability when operating at process extremes, and economic competitiveness.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• OSTI ID: 330689
• Report Number(s): CONF-9705115--PROC.; ORNL/FMP--97/1; ON: DE98007329
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
ARC WELDING
CERMETS
CHROMIUM CARBIDES
CORROSION PROTECTION
DEPOSITION
INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
PROTECTIVE COATINGS
WEAR RESISTANCE