Abstract
Generally, deposition mechanism of diamond particle is mainly embedding effect in the kinetic spray process. Accordingly, in spite of high cost, helium gas was employed as process gas to get high diamond fraction in the composite coating. In this study, the deposition behavior of bronze/diamond by kinetic spray process was compared using different process gas (helium and nitrogen). Bare (mean size of $5{\mu}m$, $20{\mu}m$) and nickel coated diamond (mean size of $26{\mu}m$) were deposited on Al 6061-T6 substrate with fixed process temperature and pressure. For comparison with experimental results, plastic deformation behavior of nickel layer was simulated by finite element analysis (using ABAQUS/Explicit 6.7-2). The size, broken ratio, and fraction of diamond in the composite coating were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy and image analysis method. The uniform distribution and deposition efficiency of diamond particles in the coating layer could be achieved by tailoring the physical properties of the feedstock.