Development, Characterization and Testing of MCrAlY HVOF Coating Used as Bond Coat for YPSZ Top Coat

Abstract

MCrAlY coatings (where M stands for Co, Ni, or CoNi) are used as a single overlay coating or as bond coat for thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems. Low Pressure Plasma Spray (LPPS) or Vacuum Plasma Spray (VPS) MCrAlY coatings are considered nowadays the state of the art, nevertheless High Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) MCrAlY coating is gaining more and more importance due to its quality and to the possible cost reduction in comparison to the state of the art LPPS/VPS coatings. On the other hand the HVOF process tends to have a relatively low surface roughness, which hinders the possibility to act as bond coat for a TBC coating layer. In this work, a HVOF deposition process was developed to obtain a rough MCrAlY coating which can be used as bond coat for yttria partially stabilized zirconia (YPSZ) top coat. Developed parameters were used to apply a TBC system on a stage 2 blade. TBC sections on the same blade have successfully passed thermal fatigue testing according to the specification of an important OEM.