Metallisation Flame Spray process

[arceye]

Hi to the forum.

First things first, I work for the company that make the equipment to apply these coatings. I'm not here to do a hard sell and will try to be impartial with my comments. The main reason for posting is to correct a few 'myths' that have crept into the thread. If anyone wants to know more, then you can find us on the web and we're happy to chat through with anyone. If the equipment is not suitable for you or too expensive, we can point you towards a couple of people already doing the work.

OK, on to the mythbusting. It is not a new, super wonder product. The process was patented around 1916. Our company started in this industry in 1922, selling the first versions of the type of system shown in the article. We made our first own design of this product in 1936. So it's not a new process and has been dabbled with for panel repair for decades. It's just been promoted better recently. It's not a wonder cure for everything, but does have its place.

It is not an alternative to welding and does not have the strength of welded metal or welding in a panel. However, it is proving successful in filling peppered holes and larger holes when reinforced. I believe that it is circa 3-4 time quicker than welding in a panel but there will be some variation on that dependent on skill levels. It is an alternative to filling with P38 type fillers.

Re the comment about issues with getting paint to stick to it, similar to hot dip galv. This is not the case. Metal sprayed zinc is slightly porous and actually provides a good key for subsequent paint coats. It's long been used in industry as a base coat for paint top coats from street furniture and childrens playgrounds up to off-shore oil platforms.

I believe it is also being used for seam sealing and also for complete coatings of panels. Compared to hot dip galv, it is a cold process. Hence when you spray a panel, you don't get heat distortion. To give some balance to this comment, you do need to blast the surface clean and produce a profile for the zinc to grip to. This takes some skill and knowledge to master the blasting of a large area without distorting the panel but it is acheivable. Also, hot dip will flow into areas wheras metal spray is a line of sight process. I'm not rubbishing hot dip galv, but as with many things in life, there are some applications that better suit one process over another. We often send people who contact us with tech questions about our process to galvanisers if it is a more suitable solution for their application.

Hopefully the above is of use.

Thanks for that, pretty much what I thought, I remember when we used it the end result was a relatively coarse finish, which would hold paint, in this use I believe finishing will be required to smooth it? If so is the spray zinc still porous enough to hold the paint or would we need an etch primer first. And with the right blasting I would not see a problem with distortion when prepping anyway.

If I could afford the kit I'd be straight in for it if only for the protective benefits, and thank you for clearing up that it is not an alternative to welding. Good luck with it, its nice to see a different use for the process.

[Toledo Man]

Sorry for letting these "myths" creep in and for not being too clear in my explanations.

The main reason for starting this thread was to ask if there had been any developments since the article in the Spring 2011 edition of the mag had been published. The process has potential with non-load bearing panels such as doors and tailgates.

[silverbrewer]

Could aluminium be sprayed onto a plastic car wing/bumper and then polished so it would match the polished aluminium of the rest of the car body?

[JPB]

Probably not unless you had access to a large enough space in which to create a car-sized vacuum. There's a much simple way to do that though but:
It's a wrap:

[jimmyybob]

Interestingly we have just made full use of metal spraying on a job we are doing.
A gearbox main bearing saddle was cracked and worn to buggery so its been cold stitched and metal sprayed then line bored, the result is amazing and works a treat.

These folks did the work. http://www.metalock.co.uk/

[Maaarrghk]

I too came across this process back in the 80's, although did not use it myself. It was referred to then as "metal spraying".

I had no idea it had been in use for such a long time though.

I also remember being told that as almost any metal could be sprayed from the equipment, and that as the heat was relatively low and quite localised, it could be used for such things as reclaiming rare machined components that had worn out or been damaged.

Examples would be crank and camshafts, which would then be ground back to their original (or a modified profile) and that if the correct coating was chosen, the new surface would be harder wearing than the original. Much cheaper than getting new components cast/forged.

Metallisation - if that's another myth,please be gentle with me

On reading the article in PC, I was rather hoping that (like TIG welders) the price of the equipment had come down. Sadly not.

[rich.]

whats wrong with a bit of newspaper & filler