Plasma-spraying

A plasma spray can therefore be used to apply sintered coatings to substrates which would normally be adversely affected by the sintering temperature of the coating. However, the powders carried by the plasma are exposed to greater thermal stress than the substrate, and some experimenting with specific powders is usually necessary to define the best application conditions. Where molybdenum disulphide in a metal, resin or ceramic binder is applied by this technique, the optimum conditions will usually be different for the two materials. This difficulty has been overcome by the use of two separate entry ports into the nozzle for the two components. The use of this technique has even been applied to molybdenum disulphide in a polyethylene binder. 

Pretreatment of the substrate for plasma spraying consists only of cleaning and mild grit-blasting. If the bulk substrate is not capable of withstanding the temperatures involved, it may be necessary to apply a film of a metal such as nickel or molybdenum to provide a stable substrate. Plasma spraying has not been widely used, and for many applications has probably been superseded by sputtering. 

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Figure 3 Picture of the inspected part (plasma-sprayed chromium cast iron on ferritic steel). The surface presents several cracks I to 15 pm wide.

R. Suryanarayan, Plasma Spraying. Theory and Applications, World Scientific Publishing Co., Inc., River Edge, N.J., 1993. 

Hard facing of various components in the aircraft gas-turbine engine and in industrial apphcations for textile machinery parts, oil and gas machinery parts, paper-shtting knives, etc, is estimated at 1 x 10 in 1995 with an estimated growth rate of 5% annually. The mix is approximately 45% aerospace apphcations, 55% industrial apphcations. Additionally, repair coatings for gas-turbine blades and vanes is estimated at 500 x 10 . These coatings are primarily deposited by plasma spray, arc-wire, HVOF, and detonation gun techniques. 

Besides the chemical industry, sihcon is used as a powder in the ceramics (qv) industry for the production of sihcon carbide and sihcon nitride parts (see Advanced ceramics). Sihcon powder is also used as an explosive for defense apphcations and in the refractory industry for plasma spraying with other oxide mixtures (see Refractory coatings). 

The Tribaloy aUoy T-800, is from an aUoy family developed by DuPont in the eady 1970s, in the search for resistance to abrasion and corrosion. Excessive amounts of molybdenum and sUicon were aUoyed to induce the formation during solidifica tion of hard and corrosion-resistant intermetaUic compounds, known as Laves phase. The Laves precipitates confer outstanding resistance to abrasion, but limit ductUity. As a result of this limited ductUity the aUoy is not generaUy used in the form of plasma-sprayed coatings. 

A multilayer-type structure probably due to cords in the molten zone between single arc sprayed (0.25 MPa) Ni droplets and steel substrate were found in AES point depth profiles [2.158]. That particular arc spraying condition turned out to yield the best adhesion. Plasma-sprayed AI2O3 layers separated from pre-oxidized Ni Substrate had a micrometer-thick NiO layer on the substrate-sided face and micrometer-deep oxide interdiffusion [2.159]. In this work also, AES point depth profiling substantiated technological assumptions about adhesion mechanisms. 

The seemingly simple question of the relation the characteristics of a mechanically prepared metal surface and adhesion to that surface has sporadically occupied attention for many decades without any very general conclusion being reached [69]. In some recent work, Amada et al. [70,71] grit-blasted a steel substrate, varying the angle between the gun and the specimen surface, and measured the adhesion of a plasma-sprayed alumina coating. They examined profiles of the... 

In Section 4.3 several recently developed and experimental surface preparation methods for steel such as conversion coatings, plasma spray and sol-gel that attempt to simultaneously improve durability and bond strength over grit blasting will be discussed. 

In summary, preliminary studies indicate that plasma spray coatings show great potential for improving the bondability of steel. Potential drawbacks include the requirement for relatively expensive plasma spray equipment and the necessity to keep the substfate temperature below that which would lead to undesirable metallurgical changes. 

Despite the progress outlined in this chapter, much work remains to be done in the metal surface preparation arena. For example, there is still no ideal surface preparation method that does for steel what anodization processes do for aluminum and titanium. The plasma spray process looks encouraging but because it is slow for large areas and requires rather expensive robot controlled plasma spray equipment, its use will probably be limited to some rather special applications. For more general use, the sol-gel process has potential if future studies confirm recently reported results. 

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