Comparison of cold sprayed and arc sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating on AZ91D magnesium substrate

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of cold-sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating whether it is capable of protecting magnesium alloy from corrosion, and to compare it with arc-sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, Zn15Al alloy coating was prepared with CS-6000 cold spraying system and HDX-800 arc-sprayed system. Corrosion behaviors of the two kinds of coatings were examined with potentiodynamic polarization curves methods combined with SEM, EDS, XRD, etc. Findings Corrosion behavior of cold-sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating is superior to arc-sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating. The bonding strength and density of cold-sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating is much higher than that of arc-sprayed Zn15Al alloy coating. The cold-sprayed coating has a dense structure which separate magnesium from corrosion medium completely. The samples behave as Zn15Al instead of AZ91D alloy. The coating has a low probability of pitting corrosion comparing with cold sprayed Al coating through potentiodynamic polarization curve. Practical implications Cold-sprayed Zn15Al coating can be used to improve the anticorrosion performance of magnesium significantly and low down the risk of pitting corrosion of coating. Social implications Cold-sprayed Zn15Al coating is an environmentally friendly anticorrosion method for light alloy, which is also the most effective way among thermal spray, chemical vapor deposition, sol–gel, plating and anodizing or microarc oxidation. Originality/value The present paper used cold spray method to deposit Zn15Al coating, which has an overwhelming performance both in physical and anticorrosion to traditional thermal spray method.