In this study, nickel-zirconia cermet layers are produced by solution precursor plasma spraying (SPPS) and compared with suspension plasma sprayed (SPS) coatings of similar content. Although nickel is uniformly distributed in both coatings, its presence in the suspension caused problems with the SPS process. With the SSPS process, precursor solutions are fragmented into droplets in which Ni, Zr, and Y are intimately mixed, resulting in very fine microstructure without the problems encountered with the SPS process. It was also found that plasma gas enthalpy and spray distance have predominant effects on in-flight pyrolysis of the elements, and that plasma gas mixture has an impact on porosity as well as the oxidation state of the nickel.

Suspension plasma spraying facilitates the production of thick coatings structured at the submicron or even nanometer scale. Due to the large volume fraction of internal interfaces, nanostructured coatings tend to be superior to their microstructured counterparts. Suspension plasma sprayed oxide ceramics, for example, have higher coefficients of thermal expansion, lower thermal diffusivity and hysteresis, higher hardness and toughness, and better wear resistance. In this work, Y-PSZ thermal barrier coatings are manufactured by means of SPS using two commercial submicron powders with different particle size distributions. By varying spray parameters, several coating architectures and thicknesses were achieved. The coatings were subjected to a series of thermal and isothermal shocks in order to assess the effect of particle size distribution, layer thickness, and substrate roughness on thermomechanical behavior.

This study shows that surface preheating is required to avoid delamination of flame sprayed coating glazes. In the experiments, preheating parameters are determined from heat flux measurements and potential substrate degradation is characterized and controlled by optimizing spray parameters. Coating adhesion is determined by pull-out tests and remains constant even after freeze-thaw cycling. Although gas tightness was not characterized, aging tests show that no water percolates through pore networks in the coatings.

Suspension plasma spraying (SPS) is a fairly recent technology that is able to process sub-micrometric-sized feedstock particles and permits the deposition of layers thinner (from 5 to 50 µm) than those resulting from conventional atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). SPS consists in mechanically injecting within the plasma flow a liquid suspension of particles of average diameter varying between 0.02 and 1 µm. Upon penetration within the DC plasma jet, two phenomena occur sequentially: droplet fragmentation and evaporation. Particles are then processed by the plasma flow prior their impact, spreading and solidification upon the surface to be covered. Depending upon the selection of operating parameters, among which plasma power parameters (operating mode, enthalpy, spray distance, etc.), suspension properties (particle size distribution, powder mass percentage, viscosity, etc.), and substrate characteristics (topology, temperature, etc.), different coating architectures can be manufactured, from dense to porous layers. Nevertheless, the coupling between the parameters controlling the coating microstructure and properties are not yet fully identified. The aim of this study is to further understand the influence of parameters controlling the manufacturing mechanisms of SPS alumina coatings, in particular the spray patterns influence.

Glazes are attractive materials as they can be applied onto metallic or ceramic substrates to confer on them specific properties. They find numerous applications, from art ornamenting to protection against corrosion. Conventional process (vitreous glazing) requires a high temperature treatment (up to 1400 °C in some cases) to fuse glazes after their application on the surface to be covered. This treatment cannot be hence applied onto heat-sensitive substrates without severe degradation. Previous studies showed that manufacturing glaze layers by flame spraying prevents the substrate from thermal degradation. The coating formation mechanisms are different from the ones encountered with crystallized ceramic materials: the high surface tension of glazes prevents the particles from being totally spread (i.e., "dewetting" phenomena). Effects of glaze powder characteristics (chemical composition, particles morphology) on coatings structures were also studied. Furthermore, chemical analyses proved that flame spraying did not modify glaze compositions. The most adapted powder to flame spraying has been hence selected. This contribution describes the coating formation mechanism and discusses the influence of the feedstock powder physical properties on coating characteristics. It also estimates effects of spraying parameters on coatings morphology.

Many substrates do not sustain the conventional glazing process (i.e., vitreous glazing) due to the relatively high temperature required by this treatment (i.e., up to 1400 °C in some cases) to fuse glazes after their application on the surface to be covered. Thermal spraying could appear as a solution to circumvent this limitation and to avoid the thermal decomposition of the substrates. This contribution describes some structural attributes of glaze coatings manufactured by flame spraying. It also discusses the influence of the feedstock powder morphology and some of its physical properties on the coating characteristics.

The cermet coatings constituted by a metallic phase mixed with a ceramic one allows obtaining coating properties with a wide range of variations. This is particularly interesting for graded coatings produced by APS technique with two different injection ports devoted to each kind of powder. By monitoring the powder feed rates independently it is relatively easy to obtain the requested composition and also the gradient as a function of the coating thickness. In the present work 600 ìm graded coatings were produced with 5 or 6 layers, each one with a specific composition. The hardness properties of the whole coating were evaluated by the Knoop technique. Also each layer was produced separately and characterized as well. These coatings were devoted to thermo-mechanical applications. In this work the metallic phase is always NiCr 80/20 wt% and the ceramic phase is zirconia doped with yttria or ceria as well as Al 2 TiO 5 . The powders used as a standard have a size range included between 40 and 10 µm. Smaller size ranges were evaluated to produce NiCr / ZrO 2 , Y 2 O 3 graded coatings and were compared to those obtained with the standard powder. In this last part a post heat treatment of the coating was evaluated against the mechanical properties.

A new process has been developed to incorporate graphite particles in a stainless steel coating during its formation. Four means have been tested to inject the graphite particles outside the plasma jet and its plume : graphite suspension, a graphite rod rubbed on the rotating sample, powder injection close to the substrate with an injector or an especially designed guide. The latter process has been shown to be the most versatile and the best controllable one. It allows to incorporate uniformly between 2 and 12 vol % of graphite particles (2-15 µm) within the plasma sprayed stainless steel coatings. A 2 vol % seems to give the best results : a low decrease (6%) of the coating hardness and the best results in dry friction studied with a pin on disk set up. In this case, depending on the sliding velocity (0.1 to 0.5 m/s) and loads (3.7 to 28 N) the dry friction coefficient against a 100C6 pin is reduced by a factor between 1.5 and 4 compared to that obtained with plasma sprayed stainless steel.

The aim of this study is to achieve, on aluminum alloy substrates, coatings with higher hardness and better dry tribological behavior than that of the substrate. Using atmospheric plasma spraying and a vibratory fluidized bed powder feeder, coatings consisting of a stainless steel matrix with embedded graphite particles were successfully deposited. The dry coefficient of friction of the composite layer is comparable with that of a commonly used stainless steel surface. SEM examinations of polished cross-sections reveal a lamellar structure with randomly distributed graphite inclusions. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

Titanium powder has been sprayed with nitrogen or Ar/H 2 d.c. plasma jets flowing in air. Particles have been collected at several distances downstream of the nozzle exit. In the first 40- 60 mm, convective movements created within the liquid droplets entrain homogeneously nitrogen and oxygen in the particle cores. Farther downstream, convection is less important and absorption of nitrogen and oxygen is controlled by diffusion from the particles surface. After solidification induced by high quenching rates (in the order of 10 K/s) due to different cooling means, particles are composed by a superficial layer which is an oxi-nitride of titanium and in their core by a solid solution α-Ti containing both nitrogen and oxygen.

Aerosol Flame Spraying (A.F.S) combines the atomization of a colloidal suspension with the lateral injection of the aerosol in a flame. The aerosol droplets are partially dried when crossing the flame and deposited as a coating onto a substrate. The coating is then consolidated by a heat treatment. In this paper, a modeling of the trajectories, acceleration and vaporization of the droplets is presented. This model supposes that the droplets dry at a constant rate until they impact onto the substrate. It predicts the size and water content of droplets at impact. From these data and hydrodynamic properties (viscosity, surface tension, contact angle) of the suspensions, the morphology and size of the lamella deposited on the substrate can be determined by using classical impact models. A colloidal monoclinic zirconia suspension with a 60-nm particle diameter is used in this study. In spite of the complexity of the mixing of suspension spray and flame, and the diversity of the thermal histories of the droplets, the observation of the latter after impact shows that the results of the model are quite consistent with measurements.

Many studies have been devoted to particle flattening and resulting splat cooling. However, if recent models allow to compute the particle flattening time evolution, very few experiments in spraying conditions have been achieved to back such calculations. The aim of this paper is to describe an imaging device allowing the visualization of particle impacts on cold and hot surfaces. This technique makes it possible : • to investigate the "impact mode" : splashing, deposition or rebound, • to link the particle parameters at impact and the substrate parameters to the observed impact mode, • and therefore, to have a better understanding of coating formation. It consists in a controlled atmosphere chamber where is followed the impact of a single particle on a substrate which can be inclined. The particle parameters prior to its impact are measured : its surface temperature by fast (100 ns) two-color pyrometry, its velocity and diameter by Phase Doppler Anenometry (PDA). The particle image during flattening, splashing or rebounding is given by a fast camera (exposure/delay time 100ns to 1ms) with possible multi exposures. The camera is triggered by the PDA and/or the pyrometer. It is then possible to calculate for each molten particle its Sommerfeld parameter characterizing its impact mode (rebounding, deposition or splashing) when no solidification occurs during flattening. The substrate are made of stainless steel 304L rapidly covered by alumina splats resulting in a Ra~5-6µm. They are kept at 300°C, temperature at which splats are disk shaped on smooth substrate (Ra<0.05µm). The very preliminary results obtained show that unmolten or partially molten particles rebound in all directions but not elastically : the rebounding particle velocity is 3 to 5 times lower than that of the impacting one. For fully molten particles, splashing occurs in all cases even for low Sommerfeld numbers. It thus seems that the substrate roughness plays a key role in splashing.

Plasma transferred arc (PTA) is now currently used for reclamation of worn materials or to provide wear or corrosion resistant coatings welded to the base material. Instead of injecting the powder in the molten pool created at the coated surface, another way to coat substrate surface before the PTA treatment has been studied. As the powder can not be simply deposited on the substrate surface because of the plasma flow which would blow it off before melting it, a tape casting process was used to obtain an adherent powder layer on the material surface. Its cohesion and adhesion to the substrate are due to the organic binder contained in the tape to form organic bridges between particles. In this paper, the electrical properties of NiCu (70/30) tapes deposited on cast iron substrates were first studied. It has been shown that the binder led to a low electrical conductivity of the layer. PTA treatment of the casted tapes has been carried out by starting the electrical arc on the metallic cast iron substrates. The process control by CCD camera allowed to observe that the NiCu particles fell in the melting pool created at the substrate surface. The study of the obtained alloy compositions has shown the drastic influence of the initial binder concentration in the tape. Moreover, before being treated by PTA, some NiCu tapes were heated in a furnace at 1100°C for 4 hours to remove the organic binder and sinter the layer. The coatings thus produced, which were characterized by a low electrical resistivity and a good adhesion to the substrate, were then treated by PTA. The surfacing alloy properties were compared to those obtained without heat treatment.

The quality of plasma sprayed coatings depends strongly on substrate surface preparation, especially roughness, grit residue, and oxidation stage; particle spray jet position and size relative to the plasma jet; impacting particle distribution; particle velocity, temperature, and size prior to impact; substrate temperature; and pass thickness. A simple and low-cost spray and deposit control system developed in our laboratory allows to monitor on-line the position, shape, and centroid of the hot particle spray jet. Such a tool has proved to be very sensitive to any drift in powder injection conditions and torch input parameters. Although it gives no direct information on particle velocity and temperature, this system can be easily implemented in an industrial environment and help to maintain constant the particle parameters during spraying. A CCD camera is used in conjunction with a pyrometer making it possible to measure simultaneously substrate temperature. The system can monitor coating parameters such as deposition efficiency and residual stresses. This paper describes how the system can be used to set the tolerance range of process input parameters to obtain coating parameters within given specifications.

Plasma transferred arc (PTA) allows to weld a metallic coating to a metal substrate in order to improve their wear and corrosion resistance. This process is mainly used for steel reclamation and the principal applications are coatings of valves, valve seats in automotive industry and extruder screws for plastic industry. This paper describes the tape casting of NiCu and NiCoCrAlTaY particles on Ni-based alloys and the various organic additives used in addition to a homogeneous metallic film. The initial results of treating these films with PTA regeneration are described. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

This paper presents the results of a study of the morphology of alumina splats deposited on stainless steel and alumina substrates. The substrates were either plasma sprayed or coated via plasma enhanced CVD. Substrates that were plasma sprayed were annealed if necessary to get specific phase structures, then polished to around 0.4 μm (Ra). CVD-coated substrates with an Ra ~6 nm and a columnar amorphous structure were sprayed as deposited. Splat studies show that the crystal structure of alumina substrates and the release of entrapped gas have a major influence on splat formation. For plasma sprayed coatings, disk-shaped splats with excellent adhesion properties were obtained on hot γ alumina, while on α alumina, splat shape and morphology were irregular and adhesion very poor. The effect of entrapped gas, on the other hand, can be seen in the splats that formed on the CVD-coated substrates. These splats were very porous and, in many, most of alumina flowed out to rim. As the paper explains, this is the result of gas release upon impact of molten particles, which reduces wettability and thermal contact between the splat and substrate.

Plasma transferred arc (PTA) is now currently used for reclamation of worn materials or to provide wear or corrosion resistant coatings welded to the base material. However, the powder injection in the molten pool created at the coated part surface is a critical parameter. In order to avoid coating reproducibility problems induced by the powder feed rate, the way to coat substrate surface with powder before the PTA treatment has been studied. As the powder cannot simply be deposited onto the substrate because of the plasma flow which would blow it off before melting it, tape casting process was used to obtain an adherent powder layer on the material surface. In this paper, tape casting of NiCu particles is described and the different organic additives used to obtain a homogeneous nickel copper film on cast iron and AG3 aluminum alloys are presented. The first results of the treatment of these films by PTA reclamation are then shown.

A simplified 1D model has been developed to calculate the temperature-time history of alumina layering splats. The splats were obtained by plasma spraying alumina fused-and-crushed particles onto steel substrates. The model correlates solidification time with splat layer thickness and cooling rate and helps to explain the process of columnar growth, the development of residual stresses, and the effect of quenching and expansion mismatch.

The temperature within plasma-sprayed oxide coatings depends strongly on the cooling devices used during spraying as well as on coating pass thickness and powder flow rate. Two oxides, alumina and zirconia, were deposited using dc Ar-H 2 plasma jets and the shape, size, and composition of the columnar structures produced were examined and found to correspond with substrate and coating surface temperatures as measured during and after spraying. The relationship between temperature and thermomechanical properties was also investigated and the results are reported in the paper.

A system, developed in the laboratory, allows to record in situ the deformation of a flat beam with a displacement sensor and so to analyse stress formation during spraying and upon cooling with fixed or rotating substrates. The beam is fixed onto a pair of knife edges by springs. The knife edges are disposed on a water-cooled rotating cylindrical substrate holder and the beam substrate (2 x 15 x 100 mm 3 ) is parallel to the holder axis. The torch is moved back and forth parallel to the holder axis and the beam temperature is recorded by a thermocouple spot welded to it and also by an IR pyrometer. The influence of beam temperature for a given torch/substrate velocity on the residual stresses is studied for alumina and zirconia coatings. With fixed substrates a sharp increase of the residual stresses related to coating microstructure exists for a transition temperature around 600°C. It seems to correspond to a columnar growth throughout the layered splats. The effect of the torch to substrate velocity and so the pass thickness is studied too.