The main role of the KUL in the nanospraying project is to evaluate the thermal sprayed nano-structured coatings. For that questionnaires were sent out to the partners companies to know the actual filed condition and the contact geometry. On the based of those questionnaires, lab test conditions were determined to simulate the field condition as soon as possible. AFM, TEM, XRD, SEM and tribological experiments were carried out on the plasma sprayed samples as well as on reference materials.
On the basis of the abrasion rate of the materials a preliminary ranking of the materials were made and the best performing materials were subjected to further in depth investigation. It has been found that wear rate of nano-structured coatings are much lower then the conventional coatings and bulk materials. Beside that, electrochemical noise measurement and EIS technique were used to evaluate the wear and corrosion-wear behavior of the coatings.
The corrosion and corrosion-wear behaviour of the nanostructured coatings are compareable with their conventional counterpart. Based on both mechanical and electrochemical investigation, optimized coatings were selected for the industrial bench tests. The outcome from the industrial bench test suggested that the optimization of the coatings according to the laboratory simulation is relevant and appropriate since the coatings provide positive performance in the industrial bench test.