Cavitation erosion and jet impingement erosion mechanism of cold sprayed Ni–Al2O3 coating

A composite coating was deposited on Inconel 600 substrate by cold spray method using pure Ni powder (60 wt.%) blended with α-Al2O3 (40 wt.%) as feedstock. It is expected to be applied to repair the bellows eroded by the liquid droplet erosion (LDE). Microstructure of the coating was observed using optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Microhardness of the coating was determined by Vickers hardness tester. Cavitation erosion (CE) experiments were carried out in the distilled water. Jet impingement erosion (JIE) experiments were performed in slurry containing 1 wt.% quartz particle with the flow velocity of 15 m/s at impingement angles of 30°, 60° and 90°, respectively. Cumulative mass loss vs. testing time was used to evaluate the erosion rate of the coating. The erosion mechanism was analyzed by OM, SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the microhardness measurement. The results show that the composite coating has compact microstructure and relatively high hardness. The resistance to CE of the coating is not as good as that of Inconel 600 substrate due to the weak bonds of the Al2O3 particles. However, the results of the JIE test indicate that the slurry erosion resistance of the coating is better than that of Inconel 600 at the impact angles of 30° and 60°, but not at the normal impact angle.