Sulzer Metco Ag

Oerlikon Metco Ag, Wohlen

Arno Refke

Gerard Barbezat

Jacobus Cornelis Doesburg

Wolfram Beele

Jean-Luc Dorier

Richard Karl Schmid

Gérard Barbezat

David Hawley

Rajiv J Damani

Christoph Hollenstein

Michael Loch

Dr Jean-Luc Dorier

The invention relates to a thermal spraying material () for the coating of a surface of a workpiece by means of a thermal spraying method, wherein the spraying material () contains zinc. The invention further relates to a thermal spraying method and to a thermally sprayed coating sprayed with the material ().

Thermal spraying material, a thermally sprayed coating, a thermal spraying method and also a thermally coated workpiece

Using this method, a coating () is manufactured on a substrate (), which forms a surface of a base body. In this method a layer () with ceramic coating material is applied to the substrate in a process chamber () using a plasma beam () and using an LPPS or LPPS-TF process. The substrate contains at least one metal Me. At a set reaction temperature of the substrate and in the presence of oxygen, an oxide, which results reactively with metal M diffused on the surface, is generated as a ceramic intermediate layer (). The ceramic layer () is deposited on this intermediate layer.

Method for the manufacture of a coating

The invention relates to a plasma spraying device () for spraying a coating () onto a substrate () by a thermal spray process. Said plasma spraying device () includes a plasma torch () for heating up a plasma gas () in a heating zone (), wherein the plasma torch () includes a nozzle body () for forming a plasma gas stream (), and said plasma torch () has an aperture () running along a central longitudinal axis () through said nozzle body (). The aperture () has an convergent section () with an inlet () for the plasma gas (), a throat section () including a minimum cross-sectional area of the aperture, and a divergent section () with an outlet () for the plasma gas stream (), wherein an introducing duct () is provided for introducing a liquid precursor () into the plasma gas stream (). According to the invention a penetration means () is provided to penetrate the liquid precursor () inside the plasma gas stream (). The invention relates also to a method for introducing a liquid precursor () into a plasma gas stream () as well as to the use of a plasma spraying device () and a method in accordance with the present invention for coating a surface of a substrate ().

Plasma spraying device and a method for introducing a liquid precursor into a plasma gas stream

A method of forming a thermally insulating layer system on a metallic substrate surface is disclosed. The method includes: forming a plasma beam; introducing a coating material in the form of a powder having particles in the range between 1 and 50 &#x3bc;m, carried by a delivery gas into the plasma beam, so as to form a powder beam; defocusing the powder beam by using the plasma beam with a sufficiently high specific enthalpy and by maintaining a process pressure between 50 and 2000 Pa for at least partially melting and vaporizing at least 5% by weight of the powder, so as to form a vapor phase cloud; and forming from the vapor phase cloud onto the metallic substrate surface an insulating layer, being a part of the insulating layer system, having an anisotropic columnar microstructure having elongate particles; wherein the anisotropic columnar microstructure is aligned substantially perpendicular to the metallic substrate surface and low-density transition regions with little material delimit the elongate particles relative to one another.

Plasma spraying method

A method of coating a substrate by thermal application of the coating materials using a plasma jet is disclosed. The properties of the plasma jet are determined by controllable process parameters. The coating material and a process gas mixture are injected into the plasma jet where the coating material is partly or completely evaporated depending on the controllable parameters. The phases of the coating material present in vapor and, optionally, condensed form are at least partly deposited on the substrate. A diagnostic measuring method determines the relative proportion of vapor and/or condensed phase for the coating material transported in the plasma jet. The controllable process parameters are set with respect to desired values using such measured data. Regulation of direct manufacture of the coating, particularly a multi-layer coating system, is carried out with respect to these desired values, which correspond to a predetermined vapor or condensed phase proportion.

Growing community of inventors

Mellingen, Switzerland

Arno Refke