Nickel-based overlay materials: recent developments, characteristic effects and applicability with plasma transferred arc welding

Plasma transferred arc welding (PTAW) is being used extensively to improve surface characteristics of materials. Apart from PTAW process parameters, the selection of appropriate overlay material is vital to obtain desired properties. Nickel-based overlay materials are gaining attraction of researchers and industrialists due to their excellent performance in numerous aggressive service conditions. However, there are wide variants of nickel-based overlay materials which need a thorough study to understand several investigation aspects. This article presents a comprehensive survey on nickel-based overlay materials used in depositing functional coatings by PTAW. Recent developments on surface characteristics such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, metallurgical bonding characteristics, oxidation resistance, microstructural characterisations, etc. are critically reviewed and summarised. This dedicated review on nickel-based overlay materials used for PTAW at one place would be ready information for subsequent authors to understand the associated problems and future aspects which may help them to decide their further research direction.