TIN COATING THICKNESS UNIFORMITY IMPROVEMENT FROM VACUUM ARC DISCHARGE PLASMA ON A BLISK SIMULATOR

Abstract

During the deposition process of complex parts, there can be unevenness in the thickness of thecoating. This may exceed the tolerance limits specified in the design documentation. An example ofthis is blisk. According to literature data, the thickness of coating on inner surfaces can be up to fourtimes greater than on outer surfaces. In this research, we used Monte Carlo simulation to improvethe uniformity of coating thickness on a three-blade blisk simulator. The initial coating thicknesswas between 0.5 and 9 microns, while the optimized coating thickness ranged from 2 to 8.5 microns.Measurements on samples showed a significant increase in microhardness, 30% in average, from920–900 HV0.05 to 1300–1900. Adhesive strength and roughness remained relatively unchanged.