1. Advanced functionally graded EB-PVD coatings for gas turbine industry
STCU/NATO Workshop
October, 11-12
Kiev
Kostyantyn Yakovchuk
phone
International Center for Electron Beam Technologies
of E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute

2. Talk outline What is needed in the market?  
What is needed in the market?
Brief technology description.
Stage of development.
Who needs it & how many will they need?
What is my unique technology advantage?
Competitive matrix.
How will I beat the competition?
Opportunity for joint work.

3. Proprietary information statement
The technology material presented in this talk is available for licensing or joint product development.
None of the slides contain any confidential or proprietary information which would prevent patenting the technology.

4. Targeted Market Segment
Gas turbines manufacturers need it.
Total quantity of gas turbine parts (blades and vanes) that can be protected using advanced functionally graded coatings is about 400,000.
Typical cost of modern aircraft engine blade made from Ni-base superalloy is about 700 USD. The cost of thermal barrier coating deposition onto 1 blade using traditional multi-stage technology is more 150 USD.

5. Problem Description & Market Need
Advanced functionally graded coatings should have a higher level of durability and life-time (at highest service temperature and in severe environment);
Gas turbines global market needs a new coating deposition technology with lower cost (one-stage electron beam physical vapor deposition technology) for protection of many thousands of blades and vanes.

6. Brief technology description
Key element of electron beam (EB-PVD) technology for deposition of functionally graded coatings is the composite ceramic ingot;
Evaporation of a single composite ingot allows deposition of advanced graded coating (bond coat, transition zones and top coat) per one process run in one EB-PVD coater;
The corresponding EB-PVD equipment is available for sale and commercialization.
Transition zone
NiAl
Transition zone
Substrate
Rene 142
8YSZ
Composite ingot for evaporation
Microstructure of graded TBC

7. Advantages This technology allows:
producing graded coatings with a higher level of reliability and durability and lower cost, which is at least 2 times lower than that of the traditional coatings produced by the multistage technology, using various kinds of equipment;
replacing the flat interface between layers by a graded transition zone and achieving a good adhesion of the coating to the substrate;
achievement of a high degree of reproducibility of the composition and structure of the functionally graded coating as compared with traditional multi-stage technologies of protective coating deposition.

8. Experimental results Graded thermal-barrier coatings (TBC) can allow:
increasing gas temperature more than 1000C, keeping the cooling blade surface temperature at the same level;
decrease of ceramic layer thermal conductivity to W/mK;
improving adhesion strength with bond coat (more than 100 MPa);
increasing thermal-cyclic life-time times compared with traditional TBC;
Graded hard erosion-resistant coatings (TiN-based, TiC-based) of m thickness deposited at high deposition rate (up to 1 m/min) can increase the erosion resistance up to times as compared with steel substrate;
Graded hard damping coatings (Sn-Cr-MgO) of thickness of about m provide several times higher damping capability and erosion resistance of Ti-based parts at 25% improvement of fatigue resistance.

9. Stage of development and international patents
First sets of blades with graded TBC deposited by one-stage EB-PVD technology are in flight engine test now.
LIST OF PATENTS FOR WHICH THE “LICENSEE” WILL BE GRANTED NON-EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO USE:
US Patent 6,669,989 of Movchan B.A., Nerodenko L.M., Rudoy Ju.E. “Method for producing by evaporation a functionally graded coating with an outer ceramic layer on a metal substrate”;
European Patent EP of Movchan B.A., Rudoy Ju.E., Malashenko I.S. “Method of producing a graded coating with a ceramic top layer’;
Application for European Patent EP A2 of Movchan B.A., Nerodenko L.M., Rudoy Ju.E. “A composite ingot for producing a gradient coating by evaporation”

10. Competition
Traditional protective coating (multi-step technologies used by Pratt&Whitney, Rolls-Royce, General Electric):
multi-stage nature of the process cycle and application of diverse equipment increase the cost of traditional coatings and do not facilitate achieving a high repeatability of their structure and properties;
One-stage electron beam deposition technology (developed at ICEBT) based on application of a composite ceramic ingot, allows producing advanced graded protective coatings with a higher level of reliability and durability and lower cost, which is at least 2 times lower than that of the traditional coatings produced by the multi-stage technology, using various kinds of equipment.

11. Competitive Matrix Important product or technology characteristics
One-stage EB-PVD technology developed at ICEBT for TBC deposition
Traditional multi-stage technology of TBC deposition
Total coating deposition time
50%
100%
Coating service life-time
180%
Coating cost

12. Opportunities
International Center for Electron Beam Technologies (ICEBT) proposes available EB-PVD equipment and licenses for using of patents and know-how for deposition of advanced functionally graded coatings:
Graded thermal-barrier coating MeCrAlY/Ni(Cr)Al/YSZ for hot section components of gas turbines for various purposes;
Graded thermal-barrier coating NiAl/YSZ for hot section components of gas turbines for various purposes
Graded nanostructured erosion-resistant coatings on steel and titanium alloy items;
Graded nanostructured damping coatings on items of titanium alloys.

13. Manufacturing of EB-PVD units in accordance with Customer requirements
The UE-204 pilot-production unit (2006)
The UE-207P production unit (2005)
EB-PVD units of the last generation developed and manufactured at ICEBT are used in the USA, Canada, China, India.
Typical cost of the EB-PVD unit is about million USD.
All main vacuum and electronic components made in the USA and Western European countries

14. “Impressive work is being accomplished in Ukraine (ICEBT) by GE Global Research to develop “Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition” hardware. Former Soviet defense experts are now low-cost producers of high-tech civilian industrial equipment built to Western standards”.
Monte Mallin,
Director, Global Security Engagement and Cooperation, Office of Nonproliferation and International Security, National Nuclear Security Administration, USIC Meeting, March 7, 2006

15. Contact information
Kostyantyn Yakovchuk
Phone:
International Center for Electron Beam Technologies
of E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute
Kiev
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