Abstract
Although the history of using the thermal inductively coupled RF-plasma (ICP) for spraying processes has been started in the early sixties, up to now all but no industrial applications are known. ICP-spraying of coatings has been investigated in various labs for interesting applications like coatings for medical implants and electrodes for SOFC´s. All the processes are VPS-applications. This on one hand of course is caused by the oxygen affinity of the used materials, on the other hand the current view in thermal spraying is, that very dense and excellent adherent coatings can be sprayed only by increasing the particles velocity. In contrast to this mind this contribution will try to show, that also under atmospheric and low vacuum conditions, i.e. using a laminar flowing plasma with nearly no acceleration of the axially injected particles, it becomes possible to spray coatings with comparable values of porosity and bond strength but special features that can not be produced with common technologies. This can be explained by the changed condition of heating, deformation and cooling down of the considerably larger particles. Actual examples are given for various spraying materials like ceramics and hard magnetic materials.