Flexible Manufacturing approach of High-Entropy and compositionally complex CerMet Feedstock for Thermal Spray Applications

High-Entropy Alloys and compositionally complex CerMet systems are opening access to an unprecedented materials design space, offering significant potential for tailoring mechanical, functional, and environmental performance. This expansion has been strongly enabled by advances in computational power, which now allow extensive modelling and simulation campaigns to explore large compositional domains. However, translating these virtual material concepts into reliable, experimentally validated solutions remains a major challenge, particularly when data at an industrially relevant scale are required.

A critical bottleneck lies in the availability of suitable feedstock for thermal spray processes, where compositional complexity, phase stability, and powder quality must be controlled simultaneously. Many synthesis routes struggle to deliver powders beyond laboratory scale or to achieve sufficiently low variability at pilot or industrial scale, thereby limiting the validation of modelling predictions under realistic processing conditions.

This contribution presents the solid-state mechanical alloying approach developed by MBN to address this challenge. The flexibility of mechanical alloying enables the synthesis of complex alloy systems without melting, allowing the combination of elements with widely different thermophysical properties while maintaining compositional homogeneity. The intrinsic scalability of the process supports the transition from laboratory batches to pilot-scale production, providing feedstock quantities compatible with industrial thermal spray trials.

For CerMet systems, the ceramic reinforcement phase is formed directly within the metallic matrix through a carbothermic reaction activated during mechanical alloying, resulting in a fine and well-dispersed microstructure suitable for coating deposition. The resulting powders can be tailored in terms of particle size distribution and morphology to meet the requirements of different thermal spray technologies.

The presented approach demonstrates how solid-state feedstock manufacturing acts as a key enabler for bridging computational materials design and experimental validation, supporting the exploration of complex material systems under realistic industrial conditions.