Printing machines mirror the art of precise manufacturing and adjusting of fast moving and heavy components with an accuracy of few micrometers. In order to meet the challenge of fast and high quality printing combined with a long lifetime of the machines, the core components transporting the print substrate and the different kinds of ink and other liquids needs to be coated, what is done more and more by applying thermal spray processes. The main requirements cover wear and corrosion resistance as well as suitable wetting and special needs like the ability of laser engraving. Moreover, the coatings are post processed to achieve a sufficiently low surface roughness combined with an appropriate microstructure resulting in a fine structure if laser engraving is considered. This paper will give a review of applications, techniques and materials, which are well-established in printing industry in respect to the specific demands of the case of operation. This covers the surfaces in the printing unit namely the printing and blanket cylinders but also the inking and dampening systems.

In Flexoprinting the acceleration of printing speed is the driving force to use more and more lightweight anilox rollers made out of glass or carbon fibre reinforced materials. On the other hand anilox roll manufacturers are constantly looking for coating materials allowing finer engraved structures and the processing of higher ink volumes at extended cleaning cycles. This paper describes basic trends in Flexoprinting and presents the development of a special carbide coating solution showing characteristic advantages compared to the standard plasma sprayed chromium oxide coating. Moreover the TeroStar-process is being presented as a suitable high velocity spraying process to apply this carbide coating onto fibre-reinforced anilox rolls by fulfilling the quality requirements for the laser engravement.

Sintered protective coatings are a proven technical solution against corrosion and erosion of tubes in biomass- and waste-fired boilers. The main field of application are tubes like superheater tubes or heat exchanger tubes in fluidized-bed installations corrosion endangered by the flue-gas stream. These sintered solutions complete other thermally sprayed coatings in those critical cases, where gas-dense overlays are needed due to corrosive damage. In those cases, where oxidation and erosion dominates, thermal spraying without sintering is remaining as primary solution. The development of Twin coatings out of sintered and non-sintered thermally sprayed alloys is showing a new and interesting alternative for tubes exposed to erosive-corrosive stresses under high temperature conditions.

This paper provides a sampling of current and emerging applications for thermal spraying both in manufacturing and in equipment repair. As the examples show, thermal spraying is making an impact in many areas of industry, including automotive, aviation, biomedical, energy, printing, pulp and paper, and textiles, as well as in military and defense. Paper text in German.

Crystallized calcium carbonate, CaCO 3 , is a mineral phase that occurs in nature as aragonite. It is well known that CaCO 3 shows excellent chemical interaction and intensive binding in direct contact to bone structures. This paper discusses the development of a plasma spraying process that shows promise for producing dense calcium carbonate layers with good adhesion properties. Tests reveal that the resulting coatings are fully biocompatible and have faster resorption times than plasma sprayed hydroxyapatite. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

Aluminium alloys are extensively used materials which can be found in all kinds of industrial applications. They have distinctive advantages such as a high strength/weight ratio, an excellent workability and a good corrosion behaviour. However, aluminium alloys have wear resistance properties which limitate further use of these alloys. Plasma transferred arc surfacing (PTA) using the DCCP-technology (Direct Current Combined Polarity) was used for enhancing wear properties of different aluminium alloys (AlMgSi0.5, AlSi12) by the formation of an alloyed layer with added ceramics. Hardness of the base material could be increased by more than two times while the wear resistance of the modified aluminium alloy was about ten times higher compared to the base material. Paper text in German.

The direct conversion of heat into electric current is still less developed form of energy conversion. Thermoelectric material working in a temperature gradient is able to induce a voltage that can drive a serial resistor. New research activities try to broaden the employment of thermoelectric generators from spacecraft technologies to terrestrial applications. The main problem at the moment is rather the lack of economic production methods, than the low efficiency of conversion. After an overview about the basics of thermoelectrics and possible applications the paper presents the thermal spraying as an alternative processing method with first attempts to realize graded structures. Al-doped and Co-doped FeSi 2 has been consolidated by APS, SPS, VPS and HVOF spraying. The microstructure, phase composition and oxygen input have been investigated and set into relation to thermoelectric properties.