Thermal Spraying of CuAlFe Powder on Cu5Sn Alloy

To improve the corrosion and wear resistance of copper and its alloys, flame spraying has been employed to obtain a relatively homogenous Cu/Al/Fe-based coating. To minimize the defects that usually occur by using this method, a post-coating annealing step has been employed, by using concentrated solar energy as means of thermal surface treatment. Scanning electron micrographs have indicated a reduction in the cracks/pores density and accelerated corrosion testing have indicated a higher performance of the solar-annealed sample, in comparison with the initial reference material. The coating approach mentioned in this paper could be successfully applied to restore several worn tools and instruments, and could also be of use in the renewable energy field (IR-absorbent coatings) or in advanced oxidation processes, such as photocatalysis.