Head of the group: Masahiro Fukumoto (Toyohashi University of Technology)
Committee: Kazuhiko Sakaki (Shinshu University)
The specific topic of the committee is the thick coating formation processes, likely given as the thermal spraying. In the processes, we normally use a few tens of or smaller ?m powder particles as feedstock, which are produced from metallic, ceramic or polymer materials, namely so-called three major engineering materials. These feedstock powders to be sprayed are fed into the thermal plasma or high velocity gas flame, then heated and accelerated simultaneously to form a coating layer rapidly onto a substrate surface with thickness exceeding several tens of ?m. The Thermal Spray process has been recognized as one of the key technologies in various industrial fields, such as aircraft, automobile, energy or semiconductor. TBC: Thermal Barrier Coating adopted for aircraft engine parts is a typical and practical example.
Nevertheless, the control of thermal spraying is not yet fully established up to today. Coating quality assurance by establishing the quality control is strongly desired to expand its application. To overcome this difficult issue, our committee is engaged in academic exchanges among various members from collaborating universities and institutes in Japan. We pursue high controllability and reliability of current thermal spray process to establish the guideline for its quality control. From various standpoints of mechanical engineering, materials science, physics, measurement technology or chemistry, we precisely investigate and analyze the fundamental behavior and phenomenon of heating/accelerating/depositing of an individual particle.
On the other hand, in recent years, not to yield to the excuse that the fusion itself of the material in the thermal spray process is a sort of necessary evil, the new deposition methods, such as Warm Spray, Cold Spray and Aerosol Deposition to deposit non-fusion solid particles onto a substrate by inducing extremely high velocity instead of heating, are becoming popular in the field of thick-coating formation. In addition, recently, much attention has been paid to Suspension Spraying using nano-sized particles in a suspension of liquid instead of gas for the improvement of the coating quality by forming a unique nano/sub-micron structure. The committee covers whole of these conventional and newly developed deposition processes as "PD (Particle Deposition) Process", the coating formation processes by the deposition of any particle materials. We are exchanging extensive information in order to develop and expand the process by both clarifying the general condition and establishing the universal control guidelines in the processes.
We presently have more than 30 members. If you have any interest to join our research group, please contact us without hesitation. Our previous meeting was held on Toyosu campus at Shibaura Institute of Technology on January 23rd, 2015. Five topics are presented at the meeting and we fulfilled academic exchanges through the discussion. The next meeting is scheduled in autumn 2015.