Abstract
Plasma sprayed MCrAlY bondcoats play a major role in thermal barrier coatings. During service, oxide forms on both sides of the bond coat and must be minimized to prevent coating failures. Along with powder chemistry, coating microstructure significantly influences oxide growth. It is known that both coating microstructure and coating strength are strongly related to plasma spraying parameters. This present work examines the effect of inflight particle properties on the adhesion strength and microstructure of NiCrAlY and NiCoCrAlY bondcoats. The relation between particle velocity and temperature and coating properties is particularly important. Relatively small changes in spray parameters such as arc current and gas flows can have a major impact on sprayed particles and consequently coating microstructure. Through online control of particle states it is expected that the quality of plasma-sprayed MCrAlY coatings can be significantly improved.