Thermally sprayed coatings as corrosion protection for steel structures – influence of manufacturing processes on the coatings quality

Steel structures are damaged by corrosion especially in off-shore and industrial environments, as well as in urban atmosphere. This creates not only health and environmental harm but also economic damage to a considerable extent. To obtain the desired functionality and provide sustainability for steel structures, costly maintain and repair is needed. For use in particularly critical environments thermally sprayed coatings based on zinc/aluminum in conjunction with a sealing supply many advantages.

The subject of the ongoing research project is to deepen the knowledge about the influence of the thermal spray process, the spraying parameters, the manufacturing and especially the sealing process on the durability of sealed ZnAl-corrosion protective coatings. Verification is provided by state of the art testing methods to evaluate the coatings quality. The overall objective of the study is to provide recommendations on approaches and boundary conditions for manufacturing and sealing of thermally sprayed layers for corrosion protection.