Abstract
The paper deals with an analysis of particle behavior in a HVOF-jet as a function of process parameters. The experiments were carried out using a commercial HVOF gun with hydrogen as fuel gas. A commercial 316 L stainless steel powder was used for spray material. The experiments were conducted by using on-line particle diagnostics in order to simultaneously detect particle velocity, temperature and diameter. The results were correlated with caught spray powder and splats. The experiments released that among many parameters the oxygen/fuel gas ratio is the most important parameter. It was found, that fragmentation of partially melted particles in a supersonic jet is not a neglectable phenomenon. It may cause excessive oxidation inflight and therefore is to be avoided in the production of oxygen-poor coatings. Furthermore, it was found that velocity or temperature measurements of particles have to be interpreted very carefully in order to characterize the process. Without taking a possible change of the particle size due to inflight fragmentation into consideration either measurement value will lead to very limited information benefit.
