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.

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.