Flame Spraying

[oddist]

Has anyone done any Flame Spraying?

I'm curious as to the appearance (texture) of bronze on steel and the ability of the bronze to seal the steel against corrosion.

[Araich]

Bronze (whatever the alloy) wont seal the steel well enough, and so you need to spray zinc beneath. Results are OK. Patination is harder and frankly I doubt the long term stability of the surface and the seal against rust, especially outside.

[iron ant]

I have herd of spraying bronze and resin,cold,and then you can petina,burnish whatever,but you have to use automotive primmer first,then lightly blast it to get it to stick on.What is flame spraying,sound interesting.

[oddist]

Flame spraying is the process of spraying a molten metal onto a surface.

Metal can be in the form of wire or powder.

There's also Arc Spray and Plasma Spray.

Here is a link to some good descriptions.

http://www.metal-spray.co.nz/

[iron ant]

Oddist,thanks for the link,never herd of the stuff.New Zeland would kill ya on shipping,you would think there is dealers in the states?I might check it out......m3

[oddist]

There are a lot of dealers in the States.

This site just happens to have good descriptions.

[nero]

hey cool ive just had a major work sprayed by the guys at metspray in nz.
i used this process instead of hot zinc dipping to reduce warpage ( i cranked heaps of stress into some sections ) as routine they shot blast the work prior to metal spraying which immediately 'greys' the steel, the corrosion coat is almost identical to this. The interesting part here is the addition of 15% aluminium which jumps the corrosion life span from av 15 years for zn only to 40 years (!) with the mix.
The job was done with a plasma spray, a wire fed arc spray, flame spray is old school.
If you are working on small indoor pieces you can just braze the whole piece with oxy / ac and lots of patience ( a good idea to wash the work in ammonia to get rid of the flux though) there are bronze rich paints available which could be applied over a corrosion coat and then patinated.
Personally I love steel for what it is, decay is part of this, bronze casting speaks of permanence. Steel with a bronze finish?

[oddist]

Nero,

I actually agree that steel by itself is a wonderful material.

What I am really interested in is the "texture" that might be achieved by metal spraying.

I found site that had some technically heavy info with microscopic photos of sprayed areas which doesn't do me much good from a macro-visual perspective.

Mu knowledge of metal spraying goes way back some 30 years when I believe it may have just been developing. I think it was an aluminum composition that was being used to produce a "rough surface" on deck panels of an aircraft carrier. Possibly a non-skidding treatment for aircraft?

Thanks to all for your replies to date though.

[Araich]

What I am really interested in is the "texter" that might be achieved by metal spraying.
It's about the same as 80 grit sandpaper and very uniform.

[oddist]

Araich,

80 grit sandpaper..ok..this is when applied by an authorized applicator I presume..If one were to do-it-youself..could the surface be played with to create different depths of texture?

I came across a ceramic sculptor (http://www.sculpture.org/portfolio/sculptorPage?sculptor_id=1000061) that flame sprayed a piece in 1995..unfortunately no picture of the piece.

[Araich]

If you vary the thickness over the few microns subscribed I think you'll find that it will not bind, and that it will peal away under stress and temperature change. The differing metals expand etc at different rates and it is only the thin softer coats ability to shift and flex that lets it stick.

At least this is my understanding.