By Kari Williamson
The supply contact is said to further validate the value of MesoCoat’s PComP nanocomposite coatings in the US$1 billion North American tungsten carbide thermal spray powder coating market.
Robert Miller, CEO, Abakan Inc., says: “MesoCoat received this contract after completing extensive field testing and qualification which confirmed the superior properties of our tungsten carbide (WC) based PComP nanocomposite cermet materials, compared to other commercially available coating materials.
“Several variants of our PComP coatings have been under lab and field testing with the largest oilfield, pump, mining equipment, and component manufacturers. The results have been excellent, and in some cases have shown up to 5x extended coating life. We have been anticipating great demand for these products given the excellent test results and its value proposition; and hence we had already begun scaling-up production of our PComP materials to meet this demand.
“In the very near future, we are confident of securing several other long term supply contracts that are currently in the pipeline.”
The PComP family of nanocomposite thermal spray powders offers combinations of both toughness and hardness, due to a coating microstructure that combines high hardness zones of a ductile metal in an 'optimum' geometry.
In the nitride based powders, the nanocomposite core provides high wear resistance, low friction and light weight; and the binders provide corrosion resistance, toughness, ductility, resiliency, and improve deposition efficiency.
The Nitride PComPs have low density and are up to 60% lighter in weight than carbide coatings, offer 2x higher spray cell productivity, have shown to have 3-7x lower wear and corrosion rates, and are easier to grind compared to commercially available carbide coatings, the company says.
The tungsten carbide based PComPs utilise the same core structure and binder architecture to produce coatings that provide over 2x better wear and abrasion resistance as well as better spallation resistance than conventional tungsten carbide coatings of the same chemistry.
The coatings also retain corrosion resistance, toughness, ductility, and resiliency.
The PComP family of coating materials has been designed as drop-in replacements for thermal spray powders and do not require modification of thermal spray equipment.
