Niobium is one of the most important and rarest metals, and is used in the electronic and energy industries. However, it’s extremely high melting point and oxygen affinity limits the manufacture of Nb coating materials. Here, a Nb coating material is manufactured using a kinetic spray process followed by hot isotactic pressing to improve its properties. OM (optical microscope), XRD (X-ray diffraction), SEM (scanning electron microscopy), and Vickers hardness and EPMA (electron probe micro analyzer) tests are employed to investigate the macroscopic properties of the manufactured Nb materials. The powder used to manufacture the material has angular-shaped particles with an average particle size of 23.8 μm. The porosity and hardness of the manufactured Nb material are 0.18% and 221 Hv, respectively. Additional HIP is applied to the manufactured Nb material for 4 h under an Ar atmosphere after which the porosity decreases to 0.08% and the hardness increases to 253 Hv. Phase analysis after the HIP shows the presence of only pure Nb. The study also discusses the possibility of using the manufactured Nb material as a sputtering target.

A bulk-type Ta material is fabricated using the kinetic spray process and its microstructure and physical properties are investigated. Ta powder with an angular size in the range 9-37 μm (purity 99.95%) is sprayed on a Cu plate to form a coating layer. As a result, ~7 mm-sized bulk-type high-density material capable of being used as a sputter material is fabricated. In order to assess the physical properties of the thick coating layer at different locations, the coating material is observed at three different locations (surface, center, and interface). Furthermore, a vacuum heat treatment is applied to the coating material to reduce the variation of physical properties at different locations of the coating material and improve the density. OM, Vickers hardness test, SEM, XRD, and EBSD are implemented for analyzing the microstructure and physical properties. The fabricated Ta coating material produces porosity of 0.11~0.12%, hardness of 311~327 Hv, and minor variations at different locations. In addition, a decrease in the porosity and hardness is observed at different locations upon heat treatment.

This study attempts to manufacture a Ni-Cr-Al-Y coating layer using a kinetic spray process and investigates the microstructure and physical properties of the manufactured layer. The Ni-22Cr-10Al-1Y (wt.%) composition powder is used, and it has a spherical shape with an average diameter of 23.7 μm. Cu plate is used as the substrate. Optical microscope, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and Vickers hardness test are carried out to characterize the macroscopic properties of the coating layer. Furthermore, the coating layer underwent vacuum heat treatment at temperatures of 400˚C and 600˚C for 1 hour to check the effect of heat treatment temperature on the properties. The manufactured coating layer is 1.5 mm thick, and featured identical phases to those found in the powder. The porosity of the coating layer is measured at 2.99%, and the hardness is obtained at 490.57 Hv. The layer shows reduced porosity as heat treatment temperature increased, and hardness is reduced at 400˚C but shows a slight increase at 600˚C. Based on the findings described above, this study also discusses possible manufacturing methods for a Ni-Cr-Al-Y coating layer using the kinetic spray process.

The effect of heat treatment environment on the microstructure and properties of tantalum coating layer manufactured by kinetic spraying was examined. Heat treatments are conducted for one hour at 800oC, 900oC, and 1000oC in two different environments of vacuum and Ar gas. Evaluation of microstructure and physical properties are conducted. High density α- tantalum single phase coating layer with a porosity of 0.04% and hardness of 550 Hv can be obtained. As heat treatment temperature increases, porosity identically decreases regardless of heat treatment environment (vacuum and Ar gas). Hardness of heat treated coating layer especially in Ar gas environment deceases from 550 Hv to 490 Hv with increasing heat treatment temperature. That in vacuum environment deceases from 550 Hv to 530 Hv. The boundary between particles became vague as heat treatment temperature increases. Oxygen distribution of tantalum coating layer is minute after heat treatment in vacuum environment than Ar gas environment.

This study is a basic research for repair material production which manufactured a Cu repair coating layer on the base material of a Cu plate using kinetic spray process. Furthermore, the manufactured material underwent an annealing heat treatment, and the changes of microstructure and macroscopic properties in the Cu repair coating layer and base material were examined. The powder feedstocks were sphere-shaped pure Cu powders with an average size of 27.7μm. The produced repair coating material featured 600μm thickness and 0.8% porosity, and it had an identical α-Cu single phase as the early powder. The produced Cu repair coating material and base material displayed extremely high adhesion characteristics that produced a boundary difficult to identify. Composition analysis confirmed that the impurities in the base material and repair coating material had no significant differences. Microstructure observation after a 500℃/1hr. heat treatment (vacuum condition) identified recovery, recrystallization and grain growth in the repair coating material and featured a more homogeneous microstructure. The hardness difference (δHv) between the repair coating material and base material significantly reduced from 87 to 34 after undergoing heat treatment.

Vacuum kinetic spray(VKS) is a relatively advanced process for fabricating thin/thick and dense ceramic coatings via submicron-sized particle impact at room temperature. However, unfortunately, the particle velocity, which is an important value for investigating the deposition mechanism, has not been clarified yet. Thus, in this research, VKS average particle velocities were derived by numerical analysis method(CFD: computational fluid dynamics) connected with an experimental approach(SCM: slit cell method). When the process gas or powder particles are accelerated by a compressive force generated by gas pressure in kinetic spraying, a tensile force generated by the vacuum in the VKS system accelerates the process gas. As a result, the gas is able to reach supersonic speed even though only 0.6MPa gas pressure is used in VKS. In addition, small size powders can be accelerated up to supersonic velocity by means of the drag-force of the low pressure process gas flow. Furthermore, in this process, the increase of gas flow makes the drag-force stronger and gas distribution more homogenized in the pipe, by which the total particle average velocity becomes higher and the difference between max. and min. particle velocity decreases. Consequently, the control of particle size and gas flow rate are important factors in making the velocity of particles high enough for successful deposition in the VKS system.