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Conventional thermal spraying processes are almost exclusively carried out in an air atmosphere, resulting in the oxidation of the particle surfaces and interfaces within the coating and between the substrate and coating. Furthermore, the initial process of surface activation conventionally takes place in an air atmosphere, preventing an oxide-free interfacial transition. Consequently, the application of spraying materials with high oxygen affinity represents a major challenge. To overcome these issues, the present study utilized silane-doped inert gases to create an environment in which the oxygen concentration was equivalent to the residual oxygen content in an extreme high vacuum. By transferring the corundum blasting and coating process (wire arc spraying) to this environment, materials with a high oxygen affinity can be applied without oxidation occurring. For industrial use, this is an interesting prospect, e.g., for repair coatings, as the homogeneity of the composite is improved by a non-oxidized coating. Using the example of arc-sprayed copper coatings, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings were analysed. The results showed that the oxide-free, wire arc sprayed copper coatings exhibited an improved wetting behaviour resulting in a significant reduction of the coating porosity. Moreover, the improved wetting behaviour and led to an increase in the bonding rate and apparent Young’s modulus. Contrary to expectations, the residual stresses decrease although relaxation mechanisms should be inhibited, and possible reasons for this are discussed in the paper.

The production processes of the metalworking industry are usually carried out in the presence of oxygen. Par ticularly due to surface oxidation on tools and parts during production under normal atmosphere, high wear is observed in tribological systems. The focus of these investigations is the question to what extent the ambient atmosphere has an influence on the tribological system. For this purpose, the identification and characterization of wear mechanisms in an oxygen-free atmosphere is of high relevance. To analyse the influence of the ambi ent atmosphere on the tribological properties of titanium, ball-on-disc investigations are carried out on a univer sal tribometer (UMT) in an air, argon and silane-anodized atmosphere. By suppressing the oxidation under ex clusion of oxygen, a reduction of the tribochemical wear could be shown, which is accompanied by a reduction of the wear volume by a Factor of 4.5. However, due to the adhesion of both friction partners, which already occurs at low temperatures, caused by the omission of the friction-reducing cover layers, the friction coefficient increased. In addition, novel alloy formations at the interfaces were detected and analysed.