A Novel Method to Spray Tungsten Carbide Using Low Pressure Cold Spray Technology

High carbide content composite coatings of tungsten carbide-aluminium and tungsten carbide-copper were produced by low-pressure cold spray system using a novel method.  This method consisted on coating precursor carbide powders with either aluminium or copper prior to cold spraying.  Microstructure and mechanical properties of the composite coatings were compared with similar coatings produced by mixing of the precursor powders using traditional powder blending techniques. It was observed that cold spray deposits produced from coated WC powder were denser, displayed higher hardness, retained more carbide phase and had better dispersion of carbides than similar deposits produced from equivalent metal-carbide blends