Development of Refractory Coatings on High Strength, High Conductivity Substrates

The objective of this Project is to explore and develop refractory coatings on high strength, high electrical conductivity copper alloy, to enable damage resistant electromagnetic launcher. An electromagnetic launcher consists of two parallel copper rails, and a moving armature. High electrical currents passing through the rails and armature result in strong magnetic fields, high temperatures, chemical interactions and strong lateral forces on the rails and armature in the launcher bore. The NAVY is looking for a coating technology that can provide improved performance for its EM Railgun rails working at high temperatures and pressures. For this demanding application the main demand for coating technology is the production of metallurgical-bond coating with consistent quality while eliminating of coating dilution, reducing undesirable chemical reactions, and preventing negative metallurgical transformations in the base metal of the rail. These requirements are mutually exclusive for conventional metallurgical-bond fusion processes that require substrate melting during the performance of welding/coating. H&R Technology’s LaserForge™ solid-state welding/coating process promises to overcome the above-mentioned limitations of conventional fusion coating processes and permit the production of a strong, metallurgical-bond coating of these highly dissimilar metals while improving performance and service life of electromagnetic launcher.