Thermal spray is a family of technologies that allows to deposit on the surface, e.g., of a mechanical component, a layer of metallic or ceramic material, to increase the resistance to the external environment: resistance to wear, corrosion, thermal shocks. Thermal spray has a great impact on the worldwide stage, with a turnover of more than $ 8,000 billion, still growing despite the crisis period, and it finds application in the most diverse sectors. On this issue, we have developed internal expertise at an excellence level, and we have industrial size deposition plants.
In recent years, a new technology called CGS (Cold Gas Spray) was introduced. Compared to previous technological variants, the CGS allows obtaining layers without porosity and very well adherent to the substrate. Moreover, low residual stresses of the coatings after deposition allow depositing layers thick up to several millimeters.
Consequently, such a technology is particularly suitable for being applied in repairing of worn mechanical component, or to realize self-standing components, as an Additive Manufacturing equipment.
These characteristics have attracted a strong interest, also confirmed by the number of new thermal spray facilities installed, particularly in Germany, in recent years. In the case of the most consolidated technological variants, such as Plasma Spray or HVOF a stationary situation is recorded, whilst for the CGS, growth is exponential.
RINA is now able to provide an integrated offer of technological services thanks to the thirty years’ experience that Centro Sviluppo Materiali has attained in the development of solutions to industrial problems based on thermal spraying.
Our new generation CGS system, installed at our laboratory in Lamezia Terme (Italy) , is an Impact 5/11, fed by nitrogen, which can handle a gas with pressures and temperatures up to 50 bar and 1100°C, respectively, and which is driven by a 6-axis robot within a large spray cabin.
This installation, typical of an industrial workshop, allows validating the developed technological solutions directly on real components, solving within our laboratories all the scaling up related problems.
The strength of our approach lies in being able to develop innovative solutions to addressing problems from every point of view:
