Aluminum and silumin - alloy of aluminum and silicon, - are used as a base for new materials.
«These metals are light and resistant to corrosion. For them to be used in aircraft and aerospace industry, we only need to modify their tensile strength and friction properties: increase tensile strength and durability», — clarifies Maria Rygyna, master’s student at nanomaterials and nanotechnologies department of TPU.
TPU researches use titanium, titanium nitride and silumin, which contains 25% silicon, for coating. The special thing about this developed methodology is that the coating is not sprayed on the surface rather than fused in by an intensive pulsed electron beam. Experimental research demonstrated that tensile strength is 6 times higher, whereas durability is 3 times higher as a result.
«World experts in material studies point out that the main problem today is adhesion of coating with bearing surface. If coating is simply sprayed, it can be easily removed. Researchers abroad are looking for solution of this problem by creating multi-layered coatings. However, such multi-layered spraying process takes longer time. Our suggestion is to fuse the coating in the surface: adhesion is increased significantly and the process itself only takes microseconds», — says Yury Ivanov, scientific advisor of the project, professor at nanomaterials and nanotechnologies department of TPU.
Such coating method is possible when using special electron-ionic-plasma unit, created by IHCE SB RAS and TPU researchers. The developers point out that such machines are unique; Tomsk researchers supply them to Japan, China, and Canada.
According to Maria Rygyna, modified metals can be used to manufacture internal mechanism details of aerospace ships: those details endure the most wearing. Today, this method is already being used in woodworking tools production and machine building.