The Effect of Increasing the Air Flow Pressure on the Properties of Coatings During the Arc Spraying of Cored Wires

Abstract The melting conditions of the electrode wires and the structure of coatings, obtained by the electric arc spraying method depending on the pressure of the spraying air flow, are analysed in the current paper. The effect of air pressure on the spraying angle of the flow of melted metal droplets is demonstrated. It is established that due to the decrease in this spraying angle, the temperature of the droplets increases. In addition, high-speed airflow is more easily captured by smaller molten metal droplets and during the contact with the substrate surface their deformations were more strongly. Due to such phenomenon, the porosity of the coatings was reduced and the number of lamellae, welded to each other, increased. With the increasing pressure of the air flow, the thicknesses of the lamellae were decreased, however, the amount of the oxide phase in the coatings has increased. As a result, the hardness, wear resistance and cohesive strength of the coatings, obtained at a higher pressure of the air flow, have increased, and the level of residual stresses of the first kind in them decreased.