Cold spraying B4C particles reinforced aluminium coatings

摘要

Al B4C composites structure manufactured by sintering method suffers from low strength and decomposition. To solve this problem, cold spray technology was used to manufacture Al B4C composite coating on 5083 aluminium alloy. The results indicate that a high content (30 wt-%) B4C reinforced Al coating can be deposited on aluminium substrate through cold spraying. The microstructure of the coating was characterized using scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the cold spray could deposit good quality aluminium coating with bonding strength ranging from 26.5 to 28.2 MPa. The average porosity for this coating in this case is about 1.5%, and the B4C particles distribute uniformly in the coating. Electrochemical tests revealed that the cold sprayed Al + 30% B4C coating has an inferior corrosion resistance to 5083 aluminium alloy in neutral 3.5 wt-% NaCl solution. Cold spray is a talented technology to manufacture Al B4C Composites coating for neutron absorption application.