Abstract
Spray forming as a process innovation in the copper industry has opened the door to several cutting-edge technologies for copper alloys. Indeed, spray-formed copper alloys have become “mature” materials within the last two decades and have seen industrial applications in several major key production technologies of the twenty first century. In several fields they have become competitors to classical engineering materials such as steel due to their homogeneous and tailored microstructure allowing production of complex alloy systems with a good combination of strength, ductility, workability and physical properties.
This contribution presents an overview on production, microstructure, properties, applications and quality-control of industrially relevant spray-formed copper alloys. In particular, spray-formed tin bronzes as pre-materials for low-temperature superconductors, copper-manganese-nickel for the oil drilling industry, high strength aluminium bronzes as cold working tools and finally copper-nickel-silicon as a replacement for copper-beryllium are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the potential of modified spray forming (e.g. reactive spraying, injection of a second component) as a shaping method for copper-containing composite materials is outlined briefly. Finally, the effect of process parameters during spray forming is discussed and typical quality issues such as cracks, porosity, and segregation are taken into account and assessed critically.