Instabilities in plasma torches can result in poor particle heating and thus a production of low quality coatings. In order to investigate these fluctuations numerous experiments have been performed using high speed cameras taking pictures at a rate of 1000 images/s to create sequences with duration of few seconds total. Individual exposure times are usually in the range of few microseconds. In order to improve upon these parameters a new high speed camera system (HOBAS) was developed, which has been demonstrated to acquire short film sequences at a rate of 10 6 images/s using exposure times of down to 1ns/image. The camera system is based on a regular CCD camera mated with an MCP, where the MCP is triggered rapidly while the image is moved across the CCD-chip, thus enabling it to record multiple images during the CCD integration interval. Results of investigations will be presented using this instrument to detect plasma jet fluctuations in single electrode and multi electrode plasma torches.

In order to identify means to improve plasma spray consistency, various modifications to the design of a commercial plasma torch nozzle have been investigated. The modifications consist of preparing anode inserts with grooves in the axial direction (spline insert), and introducing a fraction of the plasma gas through a ring of micro-nozzles surrounding the anode nozzle (micro-jet ring). Different designs for each modification have been investigated, and these modifications have also been paired with a modified upstream gas injector. For each of the modified designs, a wide range of characteristics have been measured for the arc, the plasma jet, the in-flight particles and the coating. The results show that most nozzle modifications lead to higher particle velocities and temperatures. The plasma jet is significantly elongated by using some of the modified nozzles, and the cold gas entrainment somewhat reduced. The arc voltage and the luminosity fluctuations are little affected by the nozzle modifications, however, the modification of the gas injector does change the frequencies of the fluctuations. Each of the nozzle modifications can be easily implemented offering an economical way to enhance process reliability.

Understanding the impacting phenomena of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) particles and following coating formation in plasma spraying process is of importance to control and design the microstructure of coatings such as thermal barrier coatings. To this aim, recently, the authors have developed a novel in situ monitoring system for particle impacts under atmospheric dc plasma spraying conditions. This system utilized a high-speed video camera coupled with a long-distance microscope and was capable of capturing the particle-impinging phenomena at one million frames per second. To understand the coating formation mechanism, two approaches were attempted, that is, observation of the single splat formation and the following coating formation as the integration of splats. In the former case, the deformation and cooling processes of YSZ droplets impinging on substrates were captured successfully. In the latter case, multiple-droplet-impacting phenomena were observed as an ensemble treatment. Representing coating process, the tower formation (1- dimensional) and bead formation (2-dimentional) were observed under typical plasma spray conditions for thermal barrier coatings. By using a triggering system coupled with the motion of a robot, impact events were recorded for every pass. The obtained images clearly showed the coating formation resulted by the integration of single splats.

In-flight particle temperature measurements during atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) of Tungsten, Molybdenum, and Yttria stabilized Zirconia by two-color pyrometry are analyzed statistically. The particle temperature distributions allow assessing the melting status of the particles. Particularly the melting temperature and the particle fractions being still molten or already solidifying can be identified. Furthermore, the relevant systematic and material dependant sources for measurement errors using two-color pyrometry are investigated. Their influence is estimated and corrected best possible. As far as there is reliable data available on the emissivity of the powder material there is good agreement between the corrected measured melting temperatures and reference data.

Plasma spray for depositing thermal barrier coatings features large distributions of particle states that result in significant variations in coating quality. These variations arise from distributions of particle sizes, large spatial gradients of plasma thermal-fluid fields, and temporal variations of the arc and jet. This paper describes a simplified approach for studying how particle state distributions are influenced by torch conditions and powder distributions, and the implications for deposition rate monitoring and control. The approach combines a simplified jet model with a more detailed particle model. The important fluid-thermal spatial gradients in the plasma jet are captured using a three zone model: a core region, modeled by growth of a turbulent shear layer around a laminar core, a transition region and a similarity region. Plasma-particle momentum and thermal interactions, particle phase transitions, internal particle temperature gradients, and collapse of in-flight hollow particles have been modeled using a multi-lumped particle model. Effects of distributions of particle size, particle morphology, injection velocity, and carrier gas flow were studied for YSZ spray in an Ar-He plasma. The results provide guidance on sensor design and operation and on approaches for plume location control.

The plasma torch is one of the most important equipment during air plasma spraying, is used to produce the plasma arc in the nozzle for the acceleration and heating of particles. The voltage-current characteristic of the plasma arc is very important to the fusion of particles. The volt-ampere characteristic is affected by many factors, such as gas species, gas flow rate, nozzle geometry and the type of gas injection. So the factors influencing the voltage-current characteristics in high velocity plasma spraying were studied. As the results showed, the arc voltage is increased with the increase of the primary gas flow rate in some range. The secondary gas flow rate has an important effect on the electric arc voltage. The influence of nitrogen on the arc voltage is more than argon when they are chose as the primary gas in plasma spraying. The arc voltage is decreased with the increase of the nozzle’s compression angle and the decrease of the nozzle’s aperture, when the length of the nozzle is unvarying.

For the manufacturing of metal matrix composites, a combined process of thermal spraying followed by forging in the semi-solid state can be applied. In previous work, it has been shown that thermal spraying leads to a globular microstructure that is suitable for semi-solid forming. Thereby, penetration of the spray material into the reinforcement phase leads to reduced matrix flow paths and thus reduced forming time and fiber disarrangement during the forming process. The main requirement is a low substrate and coating temperature during matrix deposition. By control of the process temperature, geometrical accuracy of the prepreg material and it’s handling between each process step can be significantly improved, leading to an economical method that is a superior alternative to the well established MMC processes like diffusion bonding or squeeze casting. Moreover, due to low process temperatures and process time during matrix application, chemical attack of carbon fiber reinforcements can be reduced. Process development for the manufacturing of continuous fiber reinforced prepregs was focused on the analysis and control of particle properties and substrate temperature. In order to improve the temperature control during arc wire spraying, numerical process analysis of the cooling system was applied. Particle in-flight analysis with the SprayWatch system was used to obtain direct spray parameters as input data for the numerical models. The simulation results were verified by experimental infrared thermography of the substrate during coating. By the use of an optimized cooling system, dense coatings without cracks were achieved with different coating thickness, thereby tailoring the fiber volume content of the final MMC component.

This paper investigates the need and requirements for developing an improved sensing scheme for plasma spray, which would aid in compensating for the large variations in deposition rate. Experimental evaluation of a variety of current sensors reveals poor correlation with deposition rate. Important issues that explain these results include reconsidering what particle state characteristics should be measured and determining what sensing characteristics are required to achieve better correlation with deposited mass. A new particle flux sensor is proposed that meets these challenges is evaluated.

Plasma-sprayed, molten molybdenum particles (~55 µm diameter) were photographed during impact on grit-blasted glass surfaces that were maintained at either room temperature or at 350°C. Droplets approaching the surface were sensed using a photodetector and after a known delay, a fast charge-coupled device (CCD) camera was triggered to capture time-integrated images of the spreading splat from behind the glass. A rapid two-color pyrometer was used to collect the thermal radiation from the spreading droplets to follow the evolution of their temperature and calculate the splat cooling rates. It was found that as the surface roughness increased, the maximum spread diameters of the molten molybdenum droplets decreased, while the splat cooling rates increased. Impact on non-heated and heated roughened glass with similar roughness values produced splats with approximately the same maximum spread diameters, skewed morphologies, and cooling rates. On smooth glass, the splat morphologies were circular, with larger maximum spread diameters and smaller cooling rates on non-heated smooth glass. An established model was used to estimate the splat-substrate thermal contact resistances. On highly roughened glass, the thermal contact resistance decreased as the glass roughness increased, suggesting that splat-substrate contact was improved as the molten metal penetrated the spaces between the large asperities.

In a DC plasma spray torch, the dynamic behaviour of the arc attachment at the anode nozzle results in fluctuations of arc voltage and the resulting plasma jet instabilities affect the treatment of the particles injected in the plasma flow, and thus, the coating quality. However it is not clear if the experimentally-observed fluctuations of particle temperatures are a major phenomena and if their frequencies are always in unison with those of voltage. In this study, two on-line techniques are used to investigate respectively the time-variation of particle temperatures and their correlations with voltage variations; the first technique makes it possible to analyse plasma voltage instabilities and the second one to investigate the instabilities of particle temperatures. Both allow determining the frequencies and amplitude variations of voltage and particle temperatures. The experiments are carried out with two plasma torches (F4-type and 3MB-type) using respectively argon-hydrogen or nitrogen–hydrogen mixtures as plasma-forming gases. A good correlation between arc voltage and particle temperature fluctuations is observed when the plasma torch is operating with argon-hydrogen while that's not the case when the torch is operating with nitrogen-hydrogen.