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Introduction to Thermal Spraying
Thermal spray is a common process for coating, including Plasma Spraying, Arc Spraying and Flame Combustion Spraying. These processes are also called Metalizing Spraying.
Flame Combustion Spray
The power is mostly come from fuel gas, which is burned with oxygen to melt a continuously feed of metal wire, powder or rod (temperature up to 5,000°F or about 2700°C). Compressed air is concentrated around the flame, atomizing the molten material into fine spherical particles and propelling these particles at high velocity onto substrate.
Plasma Spray
In plasma spraying process, the material is introduced into the plasma jet and feed through a plasma torch, which has extremely high temperature. It is melted in the jet (temperature up to 30,000°F), propelled by inert gas flow towards a substrate to form a coating layer. Almost any materials could be sprayed by this process, as long as the material is proper to be feed in the plasma torch.
Electrical Arc Spray (Particle velocity range: 500–1000 fps)
Compared with the flame combustion spray, EAS is taking advantage of the high temperature of electric arc. Two metallic conductive wires are electrically charged with opposing polarity. The electric arc generated to vaporize metal wire and served as the coating feedstock. Inert gas is injected to trigger an atomization of the material and propel it toward the substrate. Due to the electrical arc could achieve an extremely high temperature of 10,000-12,000°F, it could handle most of metal material.