Hybrid Coatings on Centrifugal Fans in Steel Plants

Centrifugal fans in the steel industry are often exposed to rough and challenging conditions, such as vibrations, high temperatures and abrasive particles. While vibrations can mostly be avoided by balancing measures and temperature resistance achieved by the right choice of material and dimensioning of cooling discs, a resistance against abrasive particles is still a challenge for many centrifugal fans.

Increasing running time of dust-loaded centrifugal fans in steel industry

In 2014, a new materials laboratory was planned and has been successively extended. Next to high-precision devices for determining an exact weight loss, coating thickness, microscopic examination of surfaces and more, the particle jet test stand was also upgraded. TLT-Turbo is now able to perform particle jet wear experiments with original customer dust and different speeds of the blasting particles. Thanks to the results of over 650 particle jet wear experiments, TLT-Turbo has been able to gain an even deeper understanding of the influence factors and mechanisms of wear on centrifugal fans.

Various approaches to master a combination of particle-induced wear and corrosion or wear during sintering can also be investigated on a scientific basis in the new materials laboratory.

Next to the popular hardfacing solutions to prevent wear-induced plant shutdowns, TLT-Turbo is now able to offer new and sophisticated thin layer coatings such as H-101 and H-106. The choice of these thin layer coatings is based on particle jet wear experiments. To create the optimal solution for the customer (in order to achieve the highest running time and a comparatively cheap price), TLT-Turbo investigated combining hardfacing withthin layer coatings to hybrid coatings. To understand the virtue of a hybrid coating, it is advisable to take a closer look at hardfacing and thin layer coatings first.

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