HVOF (High Velocity Oxygen Fueled) coating technology has been approved as an alternative to chrome plating for quite some time now and it has replaced chrome plating on a few commercial, military and business aircrafts. This blog will focus on the commercial aircraft segment, The REACH legislature mandated that any new aircraft design must replace the chrome plating process with HVOF, which we now see on the following aircrafts Airbus A380, A350, A220 and the Boeing B787, all other existing aircrafts were not mandated to replace the chrome plating process due to the numerous REACH legislature extensions that were given to the airframers with the latest extensions set to expire in September 2024.
So, why haven’t the airframers switched all the chrome plating process to HVOF especially on landing gears, which represent a very high percentage of use on an aircraft? The answer is quite simple, “Cost”, the cost difference between chrome plating and HVOF coating is huge and the airframers aren’t willing to absorb the additional coating costs, thereby forcing the landing gear manufacturers to deal with the additional costs.
Here’s an example, a wide body main piston using a 15,000-amp rectifier would typically have a direct cost $1,070 USD to chrome plate without set-up, overhead and amortization costs added. This same part would cost $2,250 USD if coated using HVOF technology, basically more than double. I’m not saying that every landing gear component would cost double when switching to HVOF, although I am confident is saying that at least 80% of landing gear components will cost double when switching from chrome plating to HVOF coating.
In addition to the Cost aspect, we need to look at who’s out there to apply HVOF coating onto the components. “Supply Chain” is critical within the aerospace industry, currently, the landing gear OEMs supply chain for approved HVOF coating facilities is less than 40 shops worldwide, so the question is “How will 40 facilities handle hundreds of thousands of parts that will require HVOF coating.”
There must and needs to be another alternative coating technology approved, for more insight read my Blog on “HYBRID HVAF The Cost-Effective Alternative.”
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