Application of Thermal Spraying Technology in the Automotive Industry

Covering everything from engine piston rings and cylinder liners to transmission gears and battery casings for new-energy vehicles! Wear resistance improved by 3-5 times, withstanding high temperatures above 800℃, reducing friction and fuel consumption, and featuring an eco-friendly coating that replaces electroplating—zero pollution!

Offer metal powder coating, wear-resistant metal spraying, and wear-resistant metal coatings.

We can restore scrapped and out-of-tolerance mechanical parts, bringing them “back to life.” Additionally, we can pre-protect the surfaces of new workpieces with wear-resistant and corrosion-proof coatings, effectively “extending their lifespan.”

HVOF Supersonic Flame Process: In supersonic flame spraying, oxygen and aviation kerosene are mixed in a premixing system and then burned in a high-pressure combustion chamber. The resulting flame jet, combined with high-pressure air passing through a Laval nozzle, generates a high-temperature, high-velocity flame stream that heats metal-ceramic powders to a semi-molten state.

Automotive mold spraying with tungsten carbide

Molds—especially hot-work molds—not only operate under high-temperature conditions but also endure wear, compression, impact, and thermal-mechanical fatigue. Consequently, their surface properties are typically subject to stringent requirements. If the surface lacks sufficient hardness, red hardness, oxidation resistance, or corrosion resistance, it is prone to damage during use, thereby shortening the mold’s service life. Therefore, mold surfaces generally undergo surface enhancement treatments. Once a mold surface is scratched, as long as the damage is not severe, it can be repaired, thus extending the mold’s service life. Thermal spraying technology boasts several advantages in surface enhancement and component repair processes: flexible and diverse process methods, a wide range of material choices, convenient and rapid construction, strong adaptability, remarkable repair and enhancement effects, and high economic benefits. This technology is particularly well-suited for large-scale molds and molds operating under severe wear conditions. Among the commonly used techniques for mold surface enhancement and repair are plasma spraying and supersonic spraying. By employing supersonic flame spraying, tungsten carbide coatings can be applied, significantly improving the mold’s surface hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. The key performance indicators of tungsten carbide coatings are as follows: A. Coating hardness: HV1150 or higher. B. Bonding strength: 68 MPa or higher. C. Porosity: Less than 1%. D. Oxide content: Less than 3%. E. Service environment: Below 250℃, in environments without severe impacts. F. Service life: More than six times that of conventionally heat-treated surfaces.

Workpiece repair and spray coating for the automotive and marine industries, as well as pre-protection strengthening and wear-resistant enhancement treatments for workpieces.

We provide coating repair and pre-protection enhancement services for components in the automotive and marine industries, including wear-resistant reinforcement and pre-protection treatments for automotive engine mounts, synchronizer rings, crankshaft wear repair and pre-protection enhancement, gear box bearing housings, cylinder piston rods, front and rear axle support shafts, gantry guide rails, main bearing journals of engine crankshafts, rocker arm shafts, half-shaft oil seal positions, pin shafts, cylinder bed sealing surfaces, wheel hubs, and universal joint wear areas—as well as spray-coating manufacturing for piston rings and valve tappets. We also offer wear-resistant coating repairs for dredging vessel rake heads, wear-resistant rings, mud buckets, cutter blades, shovel teeth, mud pump impellers, ship propeller shafts, propeller shaft sleeves, eccentric shaft sleeves, gear transmission shafts, mud pump water seal necks, mud gate slides, sand-gravel separators scrapers, ship propellers, and thrusters, along with wear-resistant coating applications. Additionally, we provide thermal spraying of corrosion-resistant alloy materials and plastics for decks, hulls, guardrails, iron anchors, and other structural components. We have accumulated extensive experience in coating application technologies and are currently replicating our successful case studies. We will guide you through the entire coating manufacturing transformation process, ensuring: rapid production start-up; a reliable supply solution covering materials, equipment, and processes all in one place; coating trials conducted either on-site at your facility or at our technical center; and consistently high coating quality and efficiency.

Automotive Industry – Spray Coating for Wear-Resistant Cylinder Linings in Engines

Automotive Industry—Advanced Surface Treatment Technologies for Engine Cylinder and Piston Ring Coatings: Spray-on Wear-Resistant Coatings to Reduce Friction Coefficients. These cutting-edge surface treatments create specialized wear-resistant coatings with exceptionally high adhesion strength and outstanding wear resistance, reducing the friction coefficient by 20–30% and significantly lowering fuel consumption. Materials—Equipment—Processes—Solutions: We have accumulated extensive experience in coating application and are now replicating these successful cases. We will guide you through the entire coating manufacturing transformation process, ensuring: rapid production start-up; a reliable supply solution covering materials, equipment, and processes all in one place; coating trials conducted either on-site at your facility or at our technology center; and consistently high coating quality and efficiency.

Surface Hardening Treatment for Automotive Engine Molds

Understand the Applications of Thermal Spray Processing Technology at a Glance

Thermal spraying technology has a history of nearly a century, dating back to 1910 when Dr. M.U. Schoop from Switzerland developed the first metal-melt spraying apparatus. Initially, thermal spraying was primarily used for applying decorative coatings, with aluminum and zinc wires typically sprayed using oxy-acetylene flames or electric arcs. In the 1930s and 1940s, as flame and arc wire-spraying equipment became more sophisticated and flame powder guns were introduced, thermal spraying evolved from merely applying decorative coatings to repairing mechanical parts with steel wires and to coating steel structures with aluminum or zinc as corrosion-resistant protective layers. In the 1950s, the successful development of detonation spraying and subsequently plasma spraying technologies led to the widespread application of thermal spraying in fields such as aerospace and aviation. Around the same time, self-fluxing alloy powders were developed, enabling the elimination of porosity in coatings through remelting processes and facilitating metallurgical bonding between the coating and the substrate, thereby greatly expanding the application scope of thermal spraying technology. In the early 1980s, supersonic flame spraying technology was successfully developed and gained widespread adoption by the early 1990s, dramatically extending the use of WC-Co hardmetal coatings from aerospace and aviation to various industrial sectors. The emergence of high-energy plasma spraying technologies—such as those with power ratings up to 200 kW, supersonic plasma spraying, and axial-feed plasma spraying, especially the highly efficient supersonic plasma spraying technology—has provided powerful tools for further effective utilization of thermal spraying in diverse industrial applications. As a modern manufacturing technology with broad applicability, relatively simple and flexible processing techniques, wide-ranging applications, and significant economic benefits, thermal spraying can endow surfaces with a variety of functional properties, including wear resistance, corrosion resistance, thermal insulation, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, electrical insulation, erosion resistance, oxidation resistance, friction reduction, lubrication, and radiation protection. Thermal spraying is not only suitable for repairing and strengthening mechanical components but can also be used for manufacturing new parts. Thanks to the wide selection of spray materials, which are not constrained by the need for overall material alloying, it is relatively easy to produce ultra-hard alloys, various ceramic or metal-ceramic coatings, and specialized functional coatings. Moreover, compared to using solid advanced materials throughout, thermal spraying requires significantly less material, making it far more cost-effective than upgrading materials entirely. Consequently, valuable materials can be used boldly without substantially increasing costs, while the surface performance of these materials can be greatly enhanced. Parts repaired by thermal spraying generally have service lives that equal or even exceed several times those of new parts. Thermal spraying technology has a history of nearly a century, dating back to 1910 when Dr. M.U. Schoop from Switzerland developed the first metal-melt spraying apparatus. Initially, thermal spraying was primarily used for applying decorative coatings, with aluminum and zinc wires typically sprayed using oxy-acetylene flames or electric arcs. In the 1930s and 1940s, as flame and arc wire-spraying equipment became more sophisticated and flame powder guns were introduced, thermal spraying evolved from merely applying decorative coatings to repairing mechanical parts with steel wires and to coating steel structures with aluminum or zinc as corrosion-resistant protective layers. In the 1950s, the successful development of detonation spraying and subsequently plasma spraying technologies led to the widespread application of thermal spraying in fields such as aerospace and aviation. Around the same time, self-fluxing alloy powders were developed, enabling the elimination of porosity in coatings through remelting processes and facilitating metallurgical bonding between the coating and the substrate, thereby greatly expanding the application scope of thermal spraying technology. In the early 1980s, supersonic flame spraying technology was successfully developed and gained widespread adoption by the early 1990s, dramatically extending the use of WC-Co hardmetal coatings from aerospace and aviation to various industrial sectors. The emergence of high-energy plasma spraying technologies—such as those with power ratings up to 200 kW, supersonic plasma spraying, and axial-feed plasma spraying, especially the highly efficient supersonic plasma spraying technology—has provided powerful tools for further effective utilization of thermal spraying in diverse industrial applications. As a modern manufacturing technology with broad applicability, relatively simple and flexible processing techniques, wide-ranging applications, and significant economic benefits, thermal spraying can endow surfaces with a variety of functional properties, including wear resistance, corrosion resistance, thermal insulation, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, electrical insulation, erosion resistance, oxidation resistance, friction reduction, lubrication, and radiation protection. Thermal spraying is not only suitable for repairing and strengthening mechanical components but can also be used for manufacturing new parts. Thanks to the wide selection of spray materials, which are not constrained by the need for overall material alloying, it is relatively easy to produce ultra-hard alloys, various ceramic or metal-ceramic coatings, and specialized functional coatings. Moreover, compared to using solid advanced materials throughout, thermal spraying requires significantly less material, making it far more cost-effective than upgrading materials entirely. Consequently, valuable materials can be used boldly without substantially increasing costs, while the surface performance of these materials can be greatly enhanced. Parts repaired by thermal spraying generally have service lives that equal or even exceed several times those of new parts.

We specialize in thermal spray coating services for various industries.

If your products have high requirements for surface finish and dimensional accuracy, or if they will be in long-term contact with liquids and thus demand enhanced wear resistance and corrosion protection, you should choose our company’s tungsten carbide coating applied using the American Praxair JP8000 equipment. From materials to equipment, processes to solutions—we’ve got it all covered in coatings.

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