Development status of thermal spraying

       Thermal spraying technology has a history of more than 100 years since it came out at the beginning of the last century. It also has a history of more than 60 years in our country. After the founding of New China, thermal spraying has developed rapidly in our country. Especially since the reform and opening up in the early 1980s, the application, development and scientific research of thermal spraying have shown a good development trend.



1 Overview  



        The current high-speed, stable and healthy development of my country's economy is the best stage of China's economic development since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The annual growth rate of GDP is more than 10%, reaching 25 trillion yuan in 2007. As a high-tech industry and a multi-disciplinary cross-border technology, thermal spraying is extremely sensitive to the development status of the national economy, especially the development status of the manufacturing industry and the adjustment of product structure, and has a strong dependence. Therefore, under such economic situation, the annual growth rate of thermal spraying has been above 10% in the past five years. According to incomplete statistics from the Secretariat of Thermal Spraying Committee of China Surface Engineering Association, the total output value of my country's thermal spraying industry in 2007 was more than 4 billion yuan, including equipment, material manufacturing and production, spraying processing, scientific research and development, and imported thermal spraying equipment and materials. Wait. There are about 7,000 employees in the thermal spraying industry and more than 650 institutions, including thermal spraying equipment, materials, auxiliary machinery production plants, spraying processing, scientific research institutes, colleges and universities, trading companies, etc.



At present, the total global output value of the thermal spraying industry is nearly 8 billion US dollars, of which the United States is 4.2 billion US dollars, Japan is 2.1 billion US dollars, Germany is 1.2 billion US dollars, and China is 600 million US dollars (more than 4 billion yuan), according to the proportion of GDP. The ratios are 0.2/000, 0.16/000, 0.1/000 and 0.09/000. This shows that China's thermal spraying is lower than developed countries in absolute output value and relative (GDP) ratio, especially lower than the United States and Japan. The former shows that the scale of thermal spraying in my country is not large and the level of industrialization is low, while the latter shows that the technical level and "gold content" of thermal spraying in my country are not high. The former depends on the expansion of my country's overall economic scale, especially the expansion of the manufacturing industry, while the latter mainly depends on the adjustment of the product structure and the adjustment and optimization of the thermal spraying industry itself. At the same time, this also shows that the thermal spraying industry has great development space and good development prospects.



2. Brief Introduction of Thermal Spraying Committee of China Surface Engineering Association



        As of July 31, 2008, the Thermal Spraying Committee of China Surface Engineering Association has more than 250 newly developed members, and more than 750 registered group members and individual members, including more than 650 group members. Member units come from machinery, steel, electronics, metallurgy, coal, automobile, petrochemical, aviation, aerospace, military, national defense, shipbuilding, nonferrous metals, textiles, light industry, energy, transportation and other industries; there are both thermal spray companies and thermal spray companies. Equipment and material manufacturing enterprises; both scientific research institutes and colleges and universities; both state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, wholly-owned enterprises, joint-stock enterprises, and private enterprises; both mainland enterprises and Taiwan Province's sole proprietorship in the mainland enterprises, and foreign-funded enterprises. This fully proves the appeal and representativeness of the Thermal Spraying Committee, and further highlights the characteristics of the association as a cross-industry, cross-department, cross-region, cross-disciplinary, cross-ownership enterprise industry organization.



3. 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference (ITSC'07)



        The Thermal Spraying Committee of China Surface Engineering Association successfully held the 2007 Beijing International Thermal Spraying Conference and Exhibition on May 14-16, 2007 at the Beijing International Convention Center adjacent to the "Bird's Nest", the main venue of the 2008 Olympic Games. The successful convening of this conference and exhibition has reached the highest international academic level. The thermal spraying conference was held for the first time in China, creating an international academic exchange platform, promoting the rapid, healthy and innovative development of my country's thermal spraying industry and improving my country's popularity in the international thermal spraying industry. The scale of this conference and exhibition exceeded that of the previous ones. More than 1,000 domestic and foreign representatives participated in the conference, including nearly 600 foreign representatives. With more than 2,000 exhibitors and visitors, the exhibition is another grand event in the international thermal spray industry. The theme of this conference is: global coating solutions. The chairman of this conference is P.Hanneforth (Chairman of American Society for Metals (International)-American Thermal Spraying Society (ASM-TSS)), P.Heinrich (Chairman of German Welding Society (DVS) Thermal Spraying Society, Director of Thermal Spraying Department of Linde Group) ), Huang Xiaoou (Chairman of the First Thermal Spraying Committee (TSCC) of China Surface Engineering Association, Director of Surface Engineering Technology Research Institute of China Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences), Hao Rongliang (Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Baosteel Equipment Maintenance Co., Ltd.); technical chairman By M. Dorfman (American Society for Metals (International)-American Thermal Spray Society (ASM-TSS) Vice Chairman), E. Lugscheider (Professor at RWTH Aachen University, Germany), Ding Chuanxian (Academician of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) , Li Changchun (Professor of Xi'an Jiaotong University) co-chaired.



        The ITSC2007 conference received more than 360 papers, a record high in the history of the International Thermal Spray Conference. Among them, 70 papers were read by the Chinese side, ranking first in the number of papers submitted by countries, setting a historical record for China's participation in the ITSC conference. Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Surface Engineering Technology Research Institute of China Academy of Agricultural Machinery, Shanghai Baosteel Equipment Maintenance Co., Ltd. and other units have provided a number of papers. Included in the conference proceedings (including posters). Comrade Hao Rongliang made a keynote report at the opening ceremony of the conference on behalf of the Chinese side. The paper "Development of Simulating Tester for Evaluation of Build-up Characterizing in CAL Hearthrolls" co-authored by Huang Xiaoou from the Surface Institute of China Agricultural Machinery Institute and Li Yiming from Shanghai Baosteel Equipment Maintenance Co., Ltd. won the special award of ITSC2007. This is the recognition and appreciation of the international thermal spraying industry.



4. Thermal spray equipment and materials



        After decades of unremitting efforts, the vast number of thermal spraying technicians in our country have absorbed foreign advanced thermal spraying technology, and according to China's national conditions, my country has become one of the few countries in the world that can manufacture and produce most thermal spraying equipment and materials. Basically meet the thermal spraying factory, scientific research and university thermal spraying production and research and development requirements.



        my country can manufacture vacuum plasma spraying, atmospheric plasma spraying, HVOF, HVAF, explosive spraying, PTA, arc spraying, powder flame spraying, wire flame spraying equipment, and can also manufacture spraying materials including metal powders (Ni-based, Co-based, Fe-based powders) , the total output exceeds 1,000 tons/year), ceramic powder, cermet powder (Al2O3, Al2O3+TiO2, Cr2O3, Zr2O-Y2O3, WC-Co, MCrAlY, etc., the total output exceeds 300 tons/year), wire (Al, Zn) , Cu, stainless steel, etc., the total output exceeds 5,000 tons/year). The equipment quality and advanced level are at the upper-middle level, and the materials are not yet complete. But China has become one of the few countries in the world that can manufacture and produce most thermal spray equipment and materials, which is not easy.



5. Thermal Spray Applications



        In China, thermal spraying technology has been widely used in various fields, including aerospace, steel, petrochemical, anti-corrosion construction, machinery, light industry, textile, paper printing, power generation, navigation and other industries, with a total output value of nearly RMB 30 billion/year.



At present, China's thermal spraying industry has the following characteristics:



        a. Thermal spraying technology has been widely used in some fields, such as aero-engine components, continuous annealing furnace rolls, hot-dip galvanized rolls (steel), ball valves (petrochemical industry), drawing rolls, piston rings, wire drawing rings (textile). industry), capital glass mold (light industry), steel structure anticorrosion, etc. Most of these coating services are large state-owned enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises.



        b. Thermal spraying technology has a variety of spraying processes and spraying materials. my country can produce almost all spraying materials and master most spraying processes, such as vacuum plasma, atmospheric plasma, explosive spraying, HVOF, arc spraying, powder flame, PTA, laser, Melting, vacuum melting, cold spraying, etc.



        c. Two-thirds of thermal spray plants are small businesses (less than 50 people per plant), accounting for 75% of the thermal spray industry,



        d. For small spraying factories, thermal spraying is mostly used for repairing old parts. However, for large and medium-sized thermal spraying enterprises, spraying processing is mostly used for component manufacturing.



        e. Some scientific research institutes and universities actively apply thermal spraying technology to the market, and continue to promote the development of thermal spraying equipment and materials.



6. Thermal spray research and development



        Various scientific research institutes and universities are the main scientific research force of thermal spraying technology, and hundreds of papers are published in domestic and foreign academic journals every year. The research and development of thermal spraying equipment mainly focuses on the research and production of vacuum plasma, HVOF, high-speed arc spraying equipment, as well as the development of explosive spraying, plasma spraying, flame plastic spraying, and cold spraying equipment.



        The research of thermal spraying process is mainly integrated process such as spraying plus laser/induction/vacuum deposition, spontaneous combustion process. The research on materials is mainly aimed at ceramic powders such as pure Cr2O3, MCrAlY, WC-Co, and nano-powders. For coating design, performance, testing, evaluation, and quality control, research focuses on TBC coatings, high temperature oxidation-resistant cermet coatings, mixtures of genetically engineered coatings, stress distribution, microstructure, and interfacial reactions.



7. Trends and Recommendations



        1) Seize the biggest opportunity to promote the development of thermal spraying industry and market



        The current development situation and framework of my country's economy have created extremely good preconditions and foundations for the development of the thermal spraying industry. Developed countries, such as the United States, Japan, Germany, etc., have had a period of rapid development in the development history of their thermal spraying industry. At that time, their conditions were equivalent to the conditions created by the current economic situation in my country for the development of thermal spraying. Therefore, under this major premise, how to grasp, what to grasp and how to grasp should be a topic of urgent concern and discussion for all of us, and we should formulate feasible plans and schemes for maximizing benefits according to our respective situations.



        2) Private thermal spraying enterprises are the main force in the development of my country's thermal spraying industry and market



        In my country, the thermal spray coating processing (Coatingjob-shop) market has been divided by large state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign (joint venture) enterprises. How private thermal spraying enterprises compete with state-owned super-large enterprises and foreign (joint venture) enterprises in terms of capital, technical strength, relationship with end users and management should be concerned by all colleagues. Whether in the United States, Japan, Germany and other countries where thermal spraying is highly developed, or in other countries, private thermal spraying companies have always been the main force in the development of the thermal spraying industry and market, and the same should be true in my country.



        3) Pay full attention to the development of new thermal spray products and the construction of mass production capacity



        At present, the application of thermal spraying in my country has new features, that is, the application of new coatings and batch product coatings has increased, such as conveyor rollers, sink rollers, stabilizer rollers, furnace rollers in the steel industry, capacitors in the electronics industry, and brake pads in the automotive industry. , synchronous ring, aluminum flat tube of air conditioner, etc. Generally speaking, the coating technology for mass production of new products has higher requirements than the old repair coating technology in terms of spraying equipment, technology, materials and automation control. Both the supplier and the developer of the complete set of technologies have good benefits, which are also beneficial to the development of my country's thermal spraying technology. It is a great progress that thermal spraying applications mainly focus on repairing components to batch processing of new coatings.



        4) Technology and application innovation are the driving force behind the development of thermal spraying



        Innovation makes the world progress, and diversity makes the world wonderful. The same goes for thermal spray. From the collection of papers, from the research and development achievements of research institutions, universities and companies, well-known institutions and experts attach great importance to the originality of thermal spraying technology and applications. Only originality can form the diversification and advancement of technology, and can make technology and products competitive and make coating processing have higher added value.



        "The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the light boat has passed ten thousand mountains." Although the thermal spraying industry is still classified as industrial restructuring, rising energy and raw material prices, the entry of strong foreign thermal spraying companies, the dilution of profits resulting in insufficient follow-up investment, lack of original technology and many other challenges and difficulties, we still believe that all colleagues in thermal spraying With the joint efforts of our country's thermal spraying industry, there will be a bright future.