The present disclosure claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Applications No. 2017-110881, filed on Jun. 5, 2017. The contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety
The present application relates to a method for forming a thermal sprayed coating, and more particularly, to a method for forming a thermal sprayed coating on a constitution surface of a combustion chamber of an engine.
A combustion chamber of an engine is generally defined by a space surrounded by a bore surface of a cylinder block, a top surface of a piston housed in the bore surface, and a bottom surface of a cylinder head, when the cylinder head is fitted to the cylinder block. A heat shielding coating may be formed on a constitution surface such as the bore surface, the top surface and the bottom surface in order to reduce a cooling loss of the engine and protect against heat generated by combustion.
JP2016-98407A discloses a cylinder head in which a thermal sprayed coating is formed on a bottom surface as a heat shielding coating. This thermal sprayed coating has a surface layer and an inner layer. The surface layer is composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics (zircon: ceramics whose main component is ZrSiO4). The inner layer is made of Ni alloyed material in which bentonite is dispersed.
ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics of the surface layer is derived from natural mineral and has an advantage of being inexpensive. On the other hand, the thermal sprayed coating composed of this ceramics has a disadvantage that it is inferior in the thermal conductivity as compared with a general thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-Y2O3 based ceramics. Specifically, the thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics has higher thermal conductivity than thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-Y2O3 based ceramics. In other words, the thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics has lower heat shielding properties than the thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-Y2O3 based ceramics.
In order to solve this problem, the present inventor tried to increase porosity of the thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics. However, it was found that the increase in the porosity of this thermal sprayed coating develops another problem. First, the strength of the thermal sprayed coating decreases. Secondly, during finish machining of the surface of the thermal sprayed coating, a large number of internal pores are exposed on the surface and surface roughness becomes worsen. Thirdly, in order to increase the porosity of the thermal sprayed coating, it is necessary to form the coating while suppressing the melting of the ceramics powders. However, if the melting of the ceramics powders is suppressed, the yield of the coating decreases.
The present disclosure addresses to the problem mentioned above and an object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for forming a thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics coating having a thermal conductivity small enough to be applicable to the constitution surface of the combustion chamber of the engine.
The present disclosure provides a method for forming a thermal sprayed coating.
The method includes a step of supplying thermal spraying powders to flame from a thermal spraying gun to spray and deposit on a constitution surface of a combustion chamber of an engine.
The thermal spraying powders are ceramics powders composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics.
In the supplying step, average temperature of the supplied ceramics powders is increased within a temperature range being higher than vaporization temperature of SiO2 which constitutes the ceramics powders and lower than vaporization temperature of ZrO2 which constitutes the ceramics powders.
A composition ratio Zr/Si of the deposit on the constitution surface is 1.5 or more.
In the method, the vaporization temperature of SiO2 is desirably around 2820° C. The temperature around 2820° C. means that a temperature error of plus or minus 10° C. may be included (i.e. from 2810° C. to 2830° C.).
In the method, the vaporization temperature of ZrO2 is desirably 4200° C.
According to the present disclosure, the average temperature of the supplied ceramics powders is increased within the above mentioned temperature range. In such a temperature range, SiO2 in the ceramics powders vaporizes while ZrO2 in the ceramics powders does not vaporize. Therefore, component ratio of SiO2 becomes relatively lower and the composition ratio Zr/Si in the deposit becomes 1.5 or more. And, through experimentations by the present inventor, it was confirmed that thermal conductivity of the deposit having composition ratio Zr/Si of 1.5 or more is sufficiently small. Therefore, according to the present disclosure, it is possible to obtain a thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-SiO2 based ceramics, which has a thermal conductivity small enough to be applicable to the constitution surface of the combustion chamber of the engine.
An embodiments of the present application is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Elements common to each drawing are assigned the same reference number or symbol, and redundant description of the common elements is omitted. In addition, the following embodiments do not limit the present application.
A firm formation method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is applied to form a thermal sprayed coating on a constitution surface of a combustion chamber of an engine (hereinafter referred to as a “chamber wall”). First, the coating method according to the embodiment will be described with reference to
Zircon is known as an inexpensive thermal spraying material derived from natural mineral.
In other words, in the normal plasma spraying, it is considered that the zircon powders supplied to the plasma flame are melted in a state including ZrO2 and SiO2 separated from ZrSiO4, and ZrSiO4. When the zircon powders in such a state land on the surface of the base material 16, these powders deposit thereon. And when the deposit coagulates, the coagulum forms a thermal sprayed coating. Since a surface of the coagulum is rough, the surface is generally smoothed by a finish machining (a polishing process).
As mentioned above, there is a problem that the thermal sprayed coating composed of zircon has lower heat shielding properties than the thermal sprayed coating composed of ZrO2-Y2O3 based ceramics. However, another problem is developed when the porosity of the thermal sprayed coating is increased for the purposed of improving the heat shielding properties.
As shown in
In consideration of the problems mentioned above, the present inventors experimented how the temperature of the molten particles change depending on heat amount input to the zircon powders. In this specification, the heat input amount means ratio of output (kW) of the plasma to flow rate (l/min) of working gas. When the flow rate of the working gas increases, the speed of plasma flame increases. As the power of the plasma increases, the temperature of the plasma flame increases. For example, under the condition that the plasma output is high and the flow rate of the working gas is low, the plasma flame whose speed is low and temperature is high exchanges heat with the zircon powders. That is, in this case, the heat input amount is large.
The temperature of molten particles was measured under the following conditions.
Thermal spraying gun: SinplexPro or TriplexPro, diameter φ of the gun nozzle is 9 mm, manufactured by Oerlikon Metoco, Inc
Sample powders: ZrSiO4, average particle diameter of 27 μm, particle size distribution of 10 to 45 μm, manufactured by Minoganryo Corp.
Measurement equipment: DPV eVOLUTION, manufactured by Tecnar
Measurement point: a position 100 mm from the tip of the gun nozzle (spraying distance)
Input conditions: conditions are set where efficiency of the coating (coating thickness) becomes the maximum. Specifically, conditions are set by fixing powder feeding distance of 12 mm and powder injector inner diameter of 2.0 mm while adjusting flow rate of the carrier gas (Ar)
The measurement head 24 sends light (self-emission) of the molten particles crossing a focal position of the magnifying lens ML to the detection unit 28 via the photomask PM and the optical fiber 26. The detection unit 28 passes the transmitted light through the lens L to convert it into a parallel light ray. The detection unit 28 divides the parallel light into light of wavelength λ1 of 900 nm or more and light of wavelength λ2 of 900 nm or less by the beam splitter BS. The photodetectors PD1 and PD2 detect the light amounts of the wavelengths λ1 and λ2 that have passed through the spectral filters F1 and F2. The measurement PC 30 measures the temperature T(k) of the molten particles at time k from the intensity ratio (area ratio R=A1/A2) of the signals of the light amounts of the wavelengths λ1 and λ2, using the principle of the two-color radiation thermometer.
Temperature T(k) of the molten particles was calculated based on equation (1). Note that K2 in the equation (1) is a radiation second constant.
Based on the results in
Thermal spraying gun: SinplexPro or TriplexPro, diameter φ of the gun nozzle is 9 mm, manufactured by Oerlikon Metoco, Inc
Sample powders: ZrSiO4, average particle diameter of 27 μm, particle size distribution of 10 to 45 μm, manufactured by Minoganryo Corp.
Supply amount of powders: 30 g/min from one injection port
Spraying distance: a position 100 mm from the tip of the gun nozzle
Input conditions: conditions are set where efficiency of the coating (coating thickness) becomes the maximum. Specifically, conditions are set by fixing powder feeding distance of 6 mm and powder injector inner diameter of 2.0 mm while adjusting flow rate of the carrier gas (Ar)
Sample shape: The thermal sprayed coating having a thickness of 700 to 1000 μm formed under the above conditions is processed to φ of 6 mm (without base material)
The porosity of the thermal sprayed coating was measured as follows. First, a section of the thermal sprayed coating was photographed at 400 times using a laser microscope (VK-X 100 manufactured by KEYENCE). In addition, image trim was carried out when a field other than thermal sprayed coating was included.
The composition of the thermal sprayed coating was measured as follows. First, SEM image (backscattered electron image) of a cross section of the thermal sprayed coating was magnified 1000 times. Next, from the enlarged image, a section without unmolten particles and cracks was selected, and X rays generated from the analysis line in the thickness direction were taken in by the EDS detector and elemental analysis was carried out. The elements to be analyzed were Zr and Si.
As mentioned in
Based on the estimation, the present inventors experimented how the thermal conductivity of the thermal sprayed coating varies depending on the heat input amount. The thermal sprayed coating for the experiment was prepared under the following conditions.
Thermal spraying gun: SinplexPro or TriplexPro, diameter φ of the gun nozzle is 9 mm, manufactured by Oerlikon Metoco, Inc
Sample powders: ZrSiO4, average particle diameter of 27 μm, particle size distribution of 10 to 45 μm, manufactured by Minoganryo Corp.
Supply amount of powders: 30 g/min from one injection port
Spraying distance: a position 100 mm from the tip of the gun nozzle
Input conditions: conditions are set where efficiency of the coating (coating thickness) becomes the maximum. Specifically, conditions are set by fixing powder feeding distance of 6 mm and powder injector inner diameter of 2.0 mm while adjusting flow rate of the carrier gas (Ar)
Sample shape: The thermal sprayed coating having a thickness of 700 to 1000 μm formed under the above conditions is processed to φ of 6 mm (without base material)
The thermal conductivity λ of the thermal sprayed coating was calculated based on the following equation (3). In the equation (3), Cp is the specific heat capacity, ρ is the density, and α is the thermal diffusivity.
λ=Cp·ρ·α (3)
The specific heat capacity Cp was measured under the following conditions.
Measurement method: DSC method
Measuring device: DSC 8000 manufactured by Perkin Elmer Co.
Measurement sample: φ of 6 mm
Reference sample: sapphire (112.4 mg)
Measurement temperature: 25° C.
Rate of temperature increase: 20° C./min
Measurement atmosphere: N2 atmosphere
The thermal diffusivity a was measured and analyzed under the following conditions.
Measurement method: Flash method
Measuring device: LFA 467 manufactured by NETZSCH
Temperature measurement method: non-contact temperature measurement by sensor
Surface treatment: blackening agent coating (both sides)
Measurement temperature: room temperature
Measurement atmosphere: N2 atmosphere
Analysis method: Analysis including pulse width correction and heat loss correction
As the porosity of the thermal sprayed coating decreases, the thermal conductivity of the thermal sprayed coating generally increases. However, the experimentation result in
Based on the above experimentations, the coating method according to the present embodiment adjust the heat input amount to keep the average temperature of the molten particles in a temperature range being higher than the temperature at which SiO2 constituting the zircon powders vaporizes and also lower than the temperature at which ZrO2 constituting the zircon powders does not vaporize. The temperature at which SiO2 constituting the zircon powders vaporizes corresponds to temperature around 2820° C. as described in
In the plasma spraying according to the present embodiment, the zircon powders are excessively heated to raise the average temperature of the molten particles to a temperature range of 2820 to 4200° C. As a result, SiO2 in the zircon powders is vaporized, and the component ratio of ZrO2 in the molten particles is relatively increased. Such zircon powders land on the surface of the base material 16, and the deposit coagulates, the coagulum forms a thermal sprayed coating with a high composition ratio Zr/Si.
From the experimentation result shown in
In
However, when the average temperature of the molten particles rises to a temperature higher than 4200° C., ZrO2 consisting of the zircon powder is expected to start to vaporize. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a thermal sprayed coating having a high composition ratio Zr/Si when an upper limit temperature (i.e. 4200° C.) is set in spite of increasing the average temperature of the molten particles to any extent.
Further, in the coating method according to the present embodiment, the heat input amount is adjusted not only in the above temperature range but also in the thermal conductivity of the thermal sprayed coating. That is, the thermal conductivity of the thermal sprayed coating applied to the chamber wall is desirably 1.0 W/mK or less, more preferably 0.8 W/mK or less. Here, it is understood from the experimentation result shown in
From a viewpoint of forming a thermal sprayed coating having a low thermal conductivity, it is also possible to set a lower limit of the heat input amount to 0.5 or less. However, as can be seen from the experimentation result shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2017-110881 | Jun 2017 | JP | national |