2011 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 1-13
Thermal spray-coated composite tool is one of the rapid tooling techniques used for moulding applications such as in automotive and food industries. The coating/substrate interfacial condition, hence, the finished mould quality, depends on the surface characteristics of the master model (substrate). Characterizations of surface deformations of the master model and the critical thickness of the coating on the polymer substrate were carried out in this work. The progressive deformation of the master model made from polypropylene (PP) was simulated during the solidification state, using linear and nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA&NFEA). The mechanical properties of the PP substrate and coating material are important parameters. In order to study their effects, the spraying conditions were kept constant for all specimens in the experiment. The critical thickness of the coating and the spring-back levels due to variation in coating thicknesses produced via thermal spraying process can be investigated by FEA&NFEA. This method can then be performed on other components to clarify the effects of the coating thickness in order to keep the deformation of polymer substrate of the thermal spray processing.
