Abstract
Thermal spray technology became established in various parts of industry (e.g. aircraft industry, medical industry etc.). Some of the applications are highly sensitive, therefore the coating quality plays an important role. Most of the common quality control methods are based on destructive testing methods which are undesirable for economical reasons. In recent years the interest in non-destructive online measurement methods increased and still is growing. More detailed knowledge of the relationship between process parameters can help to improve the coating quality standards and to understand different phenomena in thermal spraying. This will make online process control possible and improves the acceptance of thermal spray technology. In this paper results of fundamental studies on the atmospheric plasma spraying process (APS) are presented. Al2O3 and NiCr powder were sprayed as model materials. In the experiments modem on-line monitoring systems were used to investigate the entire process from gun parameters to the coating quality. The faces in this paper are set on investigations of the in-flight properties of spray particles with the particle sensor DPV 2000 and their relationship with resulting coating properties. A method will be presented to extract characteristic values (velocity and temperature) out of the spray process with DPV 2000. With this method the APS-process was monitored and process parameters were correlated with main coating properties.
