Different spray processes for different Al2O3 coating properties

Among the different coating technologies, a thermal spray has a leading position because of its versatility: an extremely wide variety of materials can be deposited to protect back materials from wear, corrosion, thermal flux, etc. For example, atmospheric plasma spray is a rather well-established process but some other ones, such as flame technology, can also be used with lower economical impact. After a respective optimization of the processing parameters, both plasma and wire flame thermal processes were tested to form Al2O3 coatings. For each process, in-flight particle conditions, coating cross-section micro-structures and coating properties were successively determined. The experimental parameters were correlated to in-flight particle characteristics and to coating micro-structure and compared to resulting coating features. The evolution of particle velocity and temperature showed well-marked trends and the mean values were dependent on the spray process. The results emphasized the difference of spray system in terms of kinetic and thermal transfers to the particles. Then, the differences observed on in-flight particle characteristics can be used to explain the differences observed in coating properties, such as porosity content and hardness.