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Cadmium plating has been used as a corrosion resistant coating for aerospace components for many years. Cadmium plating provides good corrosion resistance with excellent self lubricating properties. In spite of these properties, continuing efforts are underway worldwide to eliminate cadmium because of environmental concerns. Alternative processes are being investigated. Metallic - ceramic coatings which contain active aluminum metal powder as pigment have been proposed as cadmium replacements. These coatings have been in use for many years in air frame applications where cadmium plating could not be used because of part size, temperature exposure extremes, or part configuration. Examples of such components are described. Recently devised dense pack metallic-ceramic coatings show improved performance in which lower cure temperatures are possible and corrosion resistance is significantly upgraded when compared to original formulations.

Coatings continue to be used on steel compressor components to maximize component life and compressor efficiency. Aluminum-ceramic coatings have been used on steel compressor components for a quarter of a century. During this time, coating application processes have been continually refined for improved performance. These processes are reviewed and a new process included - SermeTel Process 5380 DP. In this process, both coating material and process changes are made to produce finished coatings having improved surface finish, corrosion resistance and erosion properties. Test data is presented for comparison with earlier coating systems. For over twenty-five years, metallic-ceramic coatings have been successfully used on steel components of turbine engines to combat corrosion and erosion. The basic coating of this type, SermeTel W®, continues to be used in a variety of applications and is a base line from which new and improved coating systems can be compared.