Application of Glow Discharge Plasma for Cleaning (Activation) and Modification of Metal Surfaces while Welding, Brazing, and Coating Deposition

As known, the surface phenomena play a crucial role in the formation of strong interatomic bonds while joining dissimilar materials and the deposition of metal films. Thus, the presence of various contaminants, including oxides, on the metal surface reduces drastically the metal surface energy, thereby, preventing the diffusion processes in the contact zone and wetting them with liquid solder and adhesion of condensed films on the substrate surface. As a result, the processes of cleaning (activating) of metal surfaces before welding or coatings’ deposition begin to play a significant role. In some cases, metal surfaces have to be modified in order to give them the desired properties. Recently, for activation and modification of surfaces before welding and coatings’ deposition, gas-discharge plasma of abnormal glow discharge is widely used. The latter allows treating the surfaces of different configurations, including internal cavities, and various areas from units to tens of thousands of square centimetres. This review contains the results of research on the activation and modification of metal surfaces with low-energy ions (< 10 keV) initiated in the plasma of an abnormal glow discharge for welding, brazing, and coatings’ deposition. Particularly, we present results of studies of ion treatment with the glow discharge surface of samples, which are made of steels С45 and DC04, a number of active metals and alloys as well as chromium-containing steels 41Cr4, X20Cr13, and X6CrNiTi18-10, which possess the chemically and thermally stable Cr2O3 oxides on their surfaces. The decisive influence on the efficiency of purification and modification of metal surfaces with glow discharge by means of such regime parameters as electrode voltage, discharge current density, working chamber pressure, and ion exposure time is indicated. The optimal values of these parameters, in most cases, are determined by the technological conditions of the process and vary in the following ranges: U = 1500–3500 V, J = 0.4–1 mA/cm2, P = 3.99–7.98 Pa, t = 120–300 s, respectively.