Page 5 of 14
Railway Coach Axles
Many hundreds of passenger coach axles have been treated by with an arc sprayed copper deposit forming a brush path. No undercutting is carried out and the copper deposit is sprayed through a metal stencil held a short distance away from the axle onto a grit-blast surface. After spraying the copper deposit is machined.
The method of testing the coating is by rolling to compact the copper. During testing a failure rate of 50% occurred with axles previously sprayed with a molybdenum bond coat and subsequently built up with copper using Flame Spray Equipment. Using Electric Arc Equipment, the success rate is now 100%.
