Kokon
Project
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conversation and Nuclear Safety
Fundings
Grillo AG, Linde AG, RWTH Aachen
Main partners
Dr. Andreas Momber
Contact
Development of new thermal-spray coatings for the protection on offshore wind power structures
The use of thermally sprayed metals, namely zinc, aluminum and Zn/Al alloys is standard in many industries, and it has a high potential for the corrosion protection of offshore structures. Governing factors for a successful application include appropriate surface preparation, carrier gas selection, and the structure of the solidified metals. Cold-spayed metals have not been investigated yet for the corrosion protection of marine structures.
The following results are achieved:
- A less thorough steel substrate cleanliness degree (Sa 2½ compared with Sa 3) did not compromise the performance of thermally sprayed coatings under offshore testing conditions.
- The use of N2/active gas as a carrier gas improved the performance of thermally sprayed duplex systems.
- The utilization of cold sprayed AlZn duplex systems delivered promising results even with low coating thickness values.


The application of thermally sprayed ZnAl coatings to wind turbine tower segments.
Cross section of a thermally sprayed ZnAl duplex coating.