The alloyed materials form overlay composite structures (OCS) that will extend the lifecycle of power generation boilers, digesters, scrubbers and other equipment.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and large international corporations are conducting material evaluations of the alloyed composites. Results show the composite structures withstand extreme heat, corrosion, wear and other conditions in environments where conventional overlay structures fail. They offer economic and performance advantages, compared to conventional film forming, non-joining weld overlays and sheet cladding.
ArcMelt's material breakthrough is a technology that custom engineers multiple metal and non-metal powders with other elements into high performance alloys. The Overlay Composite Structures formed by the alloys can extend mean time between failures (MTBF) and shorten mean time to repair (MTTR).
"We can tailor make binary and ternary alloys, but we recommend multi-element alloys to overcome limitations inherent in binary and ternary compositions," said Chad Wagner, ArcMelt's Global Accounts Manager. ArcMelt's most recent OCS alloy contains eight elements.
One product the company is considering for protecting gasification equipment is W/Cu/Ni/Co/Fe/Cr/Ti/Sn (tungsten, copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, chromium, titanium and tin).
The large volume of tubing that forms water walls and super-heaters in coal-fired power plants stands to benefit significantly from the technology.
OCS materials can either subsidise or replace the protective metal welds and extrusions currently found in these environments.