High Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) coating

High-Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) coating is a thermal spray coating process used to improve or restore a component’s surface properties or dimensions, thus extending equipment life by significantly increasing erosion and wear resistance, and corrosion protection.

Molten or semi-molten materials are sprayed onto the surface by means of the high temperature, high-velocity gas stream, producing a dense spray coating which can be ground to a very high surface finish.

The utilization of the HVOF coating technique allows the application of coating materials such as metals, alloys, and ceramics to produce a coating of exceptional hardness, outstanding adhesion to the substrate material and providing substantial wear resistance and corrosion protection.

As the technology specialists in HVOF coating, Bodycote provides an array of spray coating materials to suit your specific needs. Backed by a customer-driven service, our facilities process a wide variety of component sizes to exacting standards with reliable, repeatable results.

Benefits

HVOF coating:

• Reduced costs;
• Improved performance;
• Improved electrical properties;
• Enabling components to operate in higher/lower temperatures;
• Enabling components to operate within harsh chemical environments;
• Improved efficiency; and
• Improved life of mating components

Application & materials

Thermal spray coating is an attractive technique as it offers a wide choice of materials and processes that have a reduced impact on the environment when compared to conventional plating processes.

HVOF coating materials available for thermal spray coating include metals, alloys, ceramics, plastics, and composites.

Process details

As with all thermal spray coating processes, HVOF coating material is heated and accelerated by a gas stream to a component’s surface, to attain better properties. With the HVOF coating process, the gas stream is produced by mixing and igniting oxygen and fuel (gas or liquid) in a combustion chamber and allowing the high-pressure gas to accelerate through a nozzle. A powder is introduced into this stream where it is heated and accelerated towards a component’s surface. The resulting thermal spray coating consists of thin overlapping platelets.

Read our article on HVOF as an alterative to hard chrome.