Development of Innovative Coating Technology, MSCoating, Using Electrical Discharge

MSCoating is a new coating technology using pulse discharge. This coating technology, which is developed by Mitsubishi Electric and IHI, has been put into practical use as an anti-wear coating for low-pressure turbine blades in aero engines. Normally, Z-notch, which is the edge of a low-pressure turbine blade in an aero engine, is treated with anti-wear coating by welding because these edges are frictioned together while the engine is running. However, coating by welding requires pre-heating, removal of excess thickness and advanced skill to ensure high reliability. Therefore, improvement of productivity and cost reduction are required for the anti-wear coating of Z-notch. MSCoating is an innovative coating technology that is able to meet these requirements. MSCoating can eliminate the above processing needed for coating by welding, and has superb productivity and reliability for machine work. It is confirmed that anti-wear performance of the coating formed by MSCoating is about 10 times as high as that formed by welding in a fretting wear test under conditions similar to the real operating condition. It is suggested that hard precipitate such as carbide and oxide of chrome and cobalt oxide in the MSCoating layer play a role in the advantages of the anti-wear performance.