Robot-guided cold spraying is currently developing as a technique with great potential for the repair of metallic components, particularly for depositing heat- and oxidation-sensitive materials. In this regard, the use of automation and robotics enables flexible control of the repair process. To ensure an optimal repair process, it is essential to consider the various requirements of robot-guided cold spraying already during the simulative planning phase. However, conventional robotic repair trajectories often do not fully consider the geometric constraints of material deposition, efficient material use, and the underlying limitations of robot kinematics. This work proposes the application of trajectory optimization by mathematical optimization for repair by robot-guided cold spraying. In this context, the optimal repair strategy must handle the constant material flow by the spray jet, which inevitably couples local material deposition with the robot motion. For this purpose, decision variables, objective function, constraints and a material deposition model are formulated to control the amount of deposited material accordingly. The goal is to generate an optimized trajectory that incorporates the requirements of cold spraying and robot kinematics to guarantee high-quality repair and efficient material use. This includes minimizing excess material and minimizing the jerk of the robot motion. The results demonstrate successful application of the trajectory optimization for component repair by cold spraying.

Surface structures are of vital importance for the wetting behaviors of hydrophobic coatings. In this work, rare earth oxide coatings with different surface structures were deposited via the solution precursor atmospheric plasma spray (SPAPS) process and solution precursor vacuum plasma spray (SPVPS) process, respectively. The SPAPS coatings showed hierarchical cauliflower-like surface structures composed of micron-sized clusters and nanometer-sized particles, while the SPVPS coatings showed relatively flat topographies with small and short bumps. The formation of different surface structures in the SPAPS and SPVPS processes was investigated by modelling the movement of in-flight particles in the vicinity of the substrate. The properties of plasma jets and the characteristics of in-flight particles in the two processes were correlated. The effects of diverted plasma gas flow on the trajectories of particles impinging on the substrate and the resultant surface structures were elaborated, revealing different shadowing effects in the SPAPS and SPVPS processes. The SPAPS coatings were superhydrophobic due to the presence of hierarchical surface structures, which showed larger water contact angles and smaller roll-off angles than the SPVPS coatings. The correlations between the surface structures and wetting behaviors of different coatings were investigated.

It is well known that legacy one-cathode/anode thermal spray guns are sensitive to aging. One reason is the large power density in particular at the arc roots on the cathode tip and the anode wall. Anode wear was studied in showing that it leads to a thinner boundary layer and a reduced motion of the arc root, which increases the local thermal load. This also results in a voltage drop, and thus in power level reduction if the power source is operated in a constant current mode. In this case, it is widely practiced to increase the secondary plasma gas flow, which, however, can only be of some help.

Hybrid plasma spraying combines deposition of coatings from coarse powders and liquids (suspensions or solutions) so that the benefits of both routes may be combined. In this study, failure evolution of early-stage thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with hybrid YSZ-YSZ and YSZ-Al 2 O 3 top-coats deposited by hybrid water/argon-stabilized plasma torch was evaluated. In-situ bending experiment was carried out in SEM to assess potential influence of the secondary miniature phase addition on the coating failure during mechanical loading. Adapted high-resolution open-source strain-mapping code GCPU_Optical_flow was used to track evolution of the local coating failure. For the tested coatings, addition of miniature phase did not weaken the hybrid coating microstructure as the crack propagation was practically insensitive to the presence of the secondary phase and dissimilar splat boundaries. Main micromechanisms of the top-coat failure were thus splats cracking, loss of cohesion (splat debonding), and mutual splat sliding.

Plasma spraying is a key industrial coating process that exhibits intricate nonlinear interactions among process parameters. This complexity makes accurate predictions of particle properties, which greatly affect process behavior, very challenging. Specifically, particle velocities and temperatures profoundly impact coating quality and process efficiency. Conventional methods often require empirical correlations and extensive parameter tuning due to their limited ability to capture the underlying physics within this intricate system. This study introduces Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) as a solution. By seamlessly integrating known physical laws and constraints directly into the model architecture, PINNs offer the potential to learn the underlying physics of the system. For comparison, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are also developed. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of a plasma generator and plasma jet model provide data to train both ANN and PINN models. The study reveals an improvement in particle velocity prediction through the proposed PINN model, demonstrating its capability to handle complex relationships. However, challenges arise in predicting particle temperature, warranting further investigation. The developed models can aid in optimizing the plasma spraying process by predicting essential particle properties and guiding necessary process adjustments to enhance coating quality.

In plasma spraying, H2 or N2 is commonly added to the primary Ar plasma which may increase the specific enthalpy, thermal conductivity and thus improve the process efficiency. The objective of this study is to provide a process characterization of a three-cathode plasma torch with various binary gas compositions. Several process diagnostics are used to characterize the impact of binary plasma gas mixtures in plasma spraying. High-speed video analysis is utilized to capture the jet fluctuations of the studied process parameters. In addition, current and voltage measurements are performed to further complement the plasma diagnostics. The impact of the binary plasma gas mixtures is determined using particle diagnostic system DPV-2000 by measuring the particle in-flight properties of Al 2 O 3 feedstock. Furthermore, the deposition efficiency (DE) of the investigated process parameters is determined. The results show that at the identical volumetric flow rate and current, the addition of H2 yields the highest particle temperatures, followed by Ar/N2 mixtures and pure Ar plasma. In reverse order, pure Ar plasma results in the highest particle velocities. In addition, the increased DE of plasma spraying with binary gas mixtures for Al 2 O 3 coatings offers the potential to increase the deposition rate of other ceramic materials. This study provides a comprehensive correlation between plasma and particle diagnostics and the deposition efficiency of binary plasma gas mixtures.

Electric arc dynamics in plasma torch affects plasma jet stability and consequently, coating properties. Depending on plasma torch design, voltage fluctuations can vary from 100 % to only a few percent of the mean voltage. Particularly, cascaded-anode plasma torch leads to very low voltage fluctuation owing to the presence of neutrodes that limit the amplitude of arc fluctuations. However, electric arc dynamics and electrode erosion process in this type of plasma torch are still poorly understood. The aim of this work is to deepen the knowledge on the influence of nozzle diameter on electric arc dynamics for two plasma forming gas compositions by means of several diagnostics devices (end-on imaging, current and voltage time monitoring, plasma jet brightness fluctuations and thermal balance determination). Reducing nozzle diameter from 9 mm to 6.5 mm results in higher voltage fluctuations, lower mean voltage and lower plasma torch thermal efficiency, probably due to a more evenly distributed warm plasma gas in the anode nozzle volume, as suggested by the higher plasma brightness. Nozzle observations after testing show significant wear in a 6.5 mm diameter nozzle, which may be evidence of a longitudinal movement of the electric arc on the anode surface, leading to high voltage fluctuations.

Developing a cost-effective fabrication method for devices containing metal channels with surface features on the submillimeter scale is essential for the development of novel, high efficiency micro-reactors and heat sinks. Traditional methods are limited by their high cost, low geometric accuracy, high energy consumption, and long processing times. This study presents a low-cost additive manufacturing method using twin wire arc spray to make surface features at the sub-millimeter scale. Water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) paste is first placed onto a mold containing a negative of the desired surface features and allowed to cure. The cured PVA is removed from the negative and metal sprayed onto its surface. The deposited metal film was backed by epoxy for added rigidity. The PVA paste was then dissolved in a water bath, resulting in a metal surface with the surface features of the mold. Surface features with length scales as small as 200 μm were reproduced. Coating delamination was prevented by minimizing the temperature of the substrate during spraying by increasing the standoff distance and scanning speed of the spray torch.

The clogging, a frequent gas passage deformation phenomenon because of powder accumulation on inner nozzle wall, is a major issue in long duration Cold Spray (CS) operations and a major challenge for Cold spray technology to be adopted for additive manufacturing. This study aims to design and integrate new nozzle design in Cold Spray operations for addressing the clogging issues in traditional circular convergent-divergent (CD) nozzles. The concept of the Aerospike nozzle is proposed for that purpose and is investigated using numerical simulation methods in this paper. An aerospike nozzle allows gases to accelerate externally bounded by environment on one-side and contoured spike wall on other side. After accelerating along the spike wall, aerospike nozzle can generate a longer supersonic gas stream. The spike region can be truncated near the tip to provide a flat face for powder injection. This proposed strategy will allow powder particles to accelerate through a longer supersonic core region, without interacting with nozzle wall. With appropriate operating parameters, an aerospike nozzle can reduce or eliminate the clogging issue completely. The efficiency and operation of aerospike nozzle is compared with same Mach number C-D nozzle using numerical simulations at stagnation pressure of 30 bar and temperature of 623K, where the aluminium powder particles are injected at 30 g/min in the centerline of both nozzles and are accelerated to similar velocities. The powder particles are accelerated in supersonic core region of aerospike nozzle without interacting with nozzle wall, it is concluded that the aerospike nozzle can be a promising nozzle design to provide clogging free long duration CS operations.

The current work numerically evaluates the efficacy of a coflowing nozzle for cold spray applications with the aim to mitigate nozzle clogging by reducing the length of its divergent section. The high-pressure nitrogen flow through convergentdivergent axis-symmetric nozzles was simulated and the particle acceleration is modelled using a 2-way Lagrangian technique which is validated using experimental results. An annular co-flow nozzle with a circular central nozzle has been modelled for nitrogen gas. Reduction of nozzle divergent length from 189 mm to 99 mm showed an approximate 2.2% drop in particle velocity at high pressure operation while no variation at lower pressure operation was observed. Co-flow was introduced to the reduced nozzle length to compensate for particle velocity loss at higher operating conditions and it was found that co-flow facilitates momentum preservation for primary flow resulting in increased particle speed for a longer axial distance after the nozzle exit. The reduced divergent section nozzle, when combined with co-flow, is comparable to the original length nozzle.

Fluorinated polymer coatings are potential candidates for ice protection systems. The current work aims to develop such coatings using cold spray as a production method. A computational approach is used to design a new cold spray nozzle for the efficient deposition of adhesive perfluoroalkoxy alkane. The icephobicity of as-sprayed coatings are evaluated using three-fold characterization: surface’s wetting behavior, time-lapse study of water droplets freezing, and ice adhesion at both macro and microscopic levels. While the as-sprayed coatings exhibited sought superhydrophobic properties, their behavior changed when exposed to frost formation resulting in degraded wetting behaviors and much larger ice adhesion strength. This demonstrates the importance of frost formation when studying icephobic coatings.

Hybrid plasma spraying has been proved to provide novel coating microstructures as a result of the simultaneous injection of a dry coarse powder and a liquid feedstock into the plasma jet. Such microstructure contains both large splats originating from the conventional dry powder and finely dispersed miniature splats deposited from the liquid. This approach enables preparation of coatings from virtually all materials which are conventionally processed using plasma spraying. However, incorporation of materials susceptible to decomposition at high temperatures is still challenging even using this concept due to the high thermal energy provided to all feedstocks to be deposited. Hereby, we propose an innovative approach of incorporation of thermally-sensitive materials into a coating sprayed using a high-enthalpy plasma torch. As a case study, Al 2 O 3 was sprayed from dry coarse powder and MoS 2 was sprayed from the suspension which was deposited directly onto the substrates, i.e., by-passing the hot plasma jet. The retention of the added material in the coating was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction.

Cold spraying has emerged as a promising technique for the repair of metallic components. For controlled material deposition, manipulation of the cold spray gun is performed by industrial robots. Such robot-guided cold spraying provides flexible control and automation of the entire process. To enable effective and material-efficient material deposition at specified repair locations, this work proposes a method for automated planning of cold spray paths and trajectories. The method begins with the extraction of the volume to be filled by comparing the nominal and actual component. To produce the extracted volume, it is divided into suitable adaptively curved layers and converted into point clouds for path planning. The cold spray path is then converted into a trajectory by adding a suitable velocity distribution for the spray velocity to produce the required locally varying layer thickness. To validate the suitability of the path and trajectory, a simulation of the material deposition is performed. In addition, the implementation of the entire method is demonstrated by exemplary use cases. The results demonstrate that the proposed method enables successful automated path and trajectory planning, both contributing to the overall goal of automated repair of damaged components by cold spray.

Atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) is characterized by complex interactions between input, process and output variables. Process control relies heavily on human expert knowledge and experience. Process diagnostics can provide additional information to the operator and support cognitive processes in task execution. When using non-cascaded torch systems, significant plasma fluctuations occur, affecting the coating quality. High-frequency fluctuations can only be detected by suitable diagnostic systems and interpreted by experienced APS operators. In this study, the state of the plasma jet (area, fluctuation) is investigated depending on total plasma gas flow rate (50 vs. 65 l/min) and the H 2 content of plasma gases (17, 20 and 23 vol. %) using high-speed camera pictures. To evaluate plasma fluctuation effects, particle temperature and velocity as well as resulting coating properties (thickness and porosity) are determined for two ceramic systems. The results show that fluctuations of the plasma jet have a significant effect on the particle state and coating quality. The use of a high-speed camera to evaluate the stability of the plasma jet is an attractive method that, when properly integrated, has the potential to provide the human operator with important information to allow rapid assessment of input parameters or the condition of the plasma torch.

In our laboratory, we have developed a method to simultaneously inject different powders from the central axis direction and radial direction of the cold spray nozzle and are producing a composite coating by this method. In the previous research of our laboratory, an Al-12Si alloy coating with excellent wear resistance was produced by micro-forging assisted cold spray using the simultaneous nozzle injection method of powder in the axial and radial directions. Here, Al- 12Si alloy, which has excellent wear resistance, was used for the coating-formed particles, and stainless steel was used for the micro-forging particles. However, because the micro-forging particles were hollow, they remained in the coating. In this paper, we evaluated the influence of increasing the mixing ratio of micro-forging particles instead of solid (no holes) micro-forging particles on the coating structure. At the same time, the behaviors of particles by computational fluid dynamics are also investigated.

Aircraft gas turbine blades operate in aggressive, generally oxidizing, atmospheres. A solution to mitigate the degradation and improve the performance of such components is the deposition of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Specifically for bond coats in aerospace applications, High Velocity Air Fuel (HVAF) is very efficient for coating deposition. However, internal diameter (ID) HVAF has received little attention in the literature and could be a promising alternative to limit oxidation during spraying when compared to conventional methods. The main objective of this study is to analyze how the ID-HVAF process influences the microstructure of NiCoCrAlY coatings. To that end, an i7 ID-HVAF torch is used to deposit NiCoCrAlY splats on a steel substrate with different stand-off distances. The deposited splats showed the presence of craters, and both partially melted and deformed particles at the surface. The particle velocity data was recorded, and the splat deformation and amount of particles deposited was shown to be directly corelated to the stand-off distance. The material composition analyzed and quantified by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) did not reveal any traces of in-flight of particle oxidation, but further investigation is required. This study provided a preliminary understanding towards the importance of stand-off distance on the splat deformation and in-flight oxidation.

In plasma spraying, compared to other thermal spraying process variants, only a small part of the available energy is used to build up a coating. Another peculiarity of this process is the relatively strong oxidation of the sprayed metallic particles, caused by the high temperatures and turbulent flow of the plasma jet in combination with the ambient air. A promising solution for increasing energy efficiency is a solid shroud that surrounds the plasma jet and thus prevents air entrainments from mixing with the plasma gas. The primary goal of this study is to develop a numerical model to investigate the effect of an external fixed nozzle extension on the plasma jet as a shroud. To this end, the existing simulation models of the plasma jet from the previous works of the authors were extended to model a solid nozzle extension at the outlet of a three-arc plasma generator. Furthermore, the length and diameter of the nozzle extension were parametrized to investigate their effects on the plasma temperature and the turbulence of the flow. This model can be used to optimize the geometry of the nozzle extension based on experimental measurements to adapt it to the flow conditions of the plasma jet. The results revealed that the plasma temperature could be increased using the nozzle extension, thereby raising the energy efficiency to melt the particles in plasma spraying.

In a DC plasma spray torch, the plasma-forming gas is the most intensively heated and accelerated at the cathode arc attachment due to the very high electric current density at this location. A proper prediction of the cathode arc attachment is, therefore, essential for understanding the plasma jet formation and cathode operation. However, numerical studies of the cathode arc attachment mostly deal with transferred arcs or conventional plasma torches with tapered cathodes. In this study, a 3-D time-dependent and two-temperature model of electric arc combined with a cathode sheath model is applied to the commercial cascaded-anode plasma torch SinplexPro. The model is used to investigate the effect of the cathode sheath model and bidirectional cathode-plasma coupling on the predicted cathode arc attachment and plasma flow. The model of the plasma-cathode interface takes into account the non-equilibrium spacecharge sheath to establish the thermal and electric current balance at the interface. The radial profiles of cathode sheath parameters (voltage drop, electron temperature at the interface, Schottky reduction of the work function) were computed on the surface of the cathode tip and used at the cathode-plasma interface in the model of plasma torch operation. The latter is developed in the open-source CFD software Code_Saturne. It makes it possible to calculate the flow fields inside and outside the plasma torch as well as the enthalpy and electromagnetic fields in the gas phase and electrodes. This study shows that the cathode sheath model results in a higher constriction of the cathode arc attachment, more plausible cathode surface temperature distribution, more reliable prediction of the torch voltage, cooling loss, and more consistent thermal balance in the torch.

Repair methods are of great interest to the aeronautic industry, especially for turbines. Deposition techniques that can quickly and easily repair small localised areas of damage in Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) on combustion chambers could be financially worthwhile. In a first approach, a Low-Power Plasma Reactor (LPPR) operating at low pressure (< 1000 Pa, 240 W) was tested to locally deposit effective Yttria partially Stabilised Zirconia (YSZ) as TBC; however, a vacuum chamber would be more difficult to implement on an industrial scale. For this reason, a new LPPR (< 1 kW) operating at atmospheric pressure with solution precursors was investigated. The precursors were injected in the plasma afterglow to be sprayed and deposited onto parts of combustion chambers. As the afterglow temperature was cooler than for most thermal spray processes, spray distance was less than 10 mm. As such, YSZ deposition could be performed locally in hard-to-reach areas. YSZ coating characteristics were studied by FTIR and SEM analyses. For example, YSZ coatings exhibited the expected stoichiometry, a precursor conversion of 98 mol%, good adherence, and a porosity evaluated at approximately 30 vol%. In addition, YSZ coating thickness could be greater than 200 μm.

The present study numerically investigates the effectiveness of co-flowing nozzles for cold spray applications. A convergent-divergent axi-symmetric nozzle system was simulated with high-pressure nitrogen flow. The particle acceleration is modelled by a two-way Lagrangian approach and validated with reference to experimental values reported in the literature. An annular co-flowing nozzle with circular central nozzle was simulated for nitrogen gas flow. The momentum preservation for central nozzle flow was observed, which results in higher particle speed for longer axial distance after nozzle exit. It is envisioned from the outcome that utilization of co-flow can lead to reduction in the divergent section length of cold spray central nozzles, which may ultimately help to address clogging issues for continuous operation. Co-flow operating at 3 MPa, same as with a central nozzle, can increase supersonic core length up to 23.8%.