ln co-operation with industrial companies, education and training institutes, and universities, an interactive multimedia learn-ing programme was developed. The project was sponsored over three years by the European Community. Structure and contents of this programme are based on the EWF-guideline “European Thermal Sprayer - Minimum requirements for education and training”. The multimedia programme contains the module of theoretical basis of the training course and covers training subjects as spraying processes, base and spray materials, bonding mechanisms, coating characteristics, measuring and testing, environmental and safety aspects. The interactive multimedia programme may be used to shorten the duration of the ETS-course, for spray company internal education and training, for settling into a new job concerning thermal spray technique, or for supporting a training course itself. The multimedia programme will be demonstrated during the poster sessions. Paper text in German.

The use of thermal spraying processes as an alternative to industrial chromium plating has significantly increased in the past years. Advanced processes, such as APS and HVOF, have proven their efficiency with thick coating in chromium plating replacement, with cost advantage for coatings thicker than 5/10 mm. This article is the synthesis of different trials made with plasma and HVOF coatings. It includes the selection of materials for trial; a description of trial's equipment; friction and wear results; properties and metallography; and the cost comparison of plasma spraying and HVOF with other processes. It has been shown that thermal spray coatings, both APS and HVOF, can be used as chromium plating alternatives, with advantages in terms of wear resistance.

Air separation plants employ centrifugal compressors where air and electrical energy are the only raw materials used in the production process. In order to optimize compressor performance and efficiency, abradable coatings, originally developed for gas turbines, have been designed into turbocompressors. This paper describes the optimization and performance improvements achievable using aluminium silicon-boron nitride materials.