Microstructural and profilometric analysis of thermally sprayed cylinder wall coatings.

Cylinder bore coatings are widely used in automotive internal combustion engines to replace cylinder liners. During the atmospheric plasma spraying process, the coatings are oxidized and controlled by the Si content of the steel powder used as the coating raw material. This phenomenon affects the technological process, the microstructure, and the properties of the formed coatings. The research aims to investigate how the Si content of two commercial grades of steel powder commonly used in industry affects the undesirable consequences observed in practice, such as clogging of powder nozzles or large variations in coating hardness. The analyses and industrial experiments show that increasing the Si content can contribute significantly to these undesirable phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]