Mitsubishi Electric exhibited surface treatment technology for aircraft engines

Mitsubishi Electric announced that the company's discharge surface treatment unit "MSCoating" has been used on the aircraft engine "CF34" manufactured by IHI.

MSCoating can form an electrode component on the surface of the base material by pulse discharge to form a film. The electrode contains a coating component such as a cobalt-based, nickel-based or molybdenum-based electrode, and can be used depending on the application. When a cobalt-based coating is used, a film of 1 μm can be formed in one second.

Previously, in order to improve wear resistance, aircraft engine components have been used for welding and plating. In these ways, peeling may occur and the base material may be thermally deformed. In contrast, MSCoating is a small repeated discharge in a localized manner, and the deformation is small, and the cover required for sputtering and electroplating is not required, and the bonding by the micro discharge does not cause peeling, which is one of the advantages (Fig. 2).

Mitsubishi Electric and Ishikawajima Heavy Industries (current name: IHI) published the technology in June 2003. So far, the two companies have been developing and commercializing applications. In the future, the two companies plan to increase the application of the technology on aircraft engines and promote them to other fields.