Electrode phenomena investigation of wire arc spraying for preparation of Ti-Al intermetallic compounds

Summary form only given. Electric arc spraying with dual wires is an economical coating process finding diverse applications. The purpose of this work is to develop a new preparation method of Ti-Al intermetallic compounds by wire arc spraying. Intermetallic compound coatings, alloy coatings or metal-ceramic composite coatings can be obtained by wire arc spraying with cored wires or pre-alloyed wires. Another method for preparation of intermetallic compounds is to spray the two different wires. The preparation of intermetallic compounds using the different wires is rather challenging topics because of the difficulty of the electrode control of the different wires, however this preparation method will provide the wide variety of compounds. Titanium wire used as the anode and aluminum wire used as the cathode have been sprayed in this study. The intermetallic compounds, such as Ti/sub 3/Al and TiAl, have been prepared during the droplet deformation on the substrate as well as during the droplet flight.