Testing Results of Plasma Spraying Ceramics Coatings by Pulse Plasma Modulation Technology

The work below was done mainly in the USSR (Tajikistan) and partly continued in Israel. This technology provides substantially better coating performance compared with the respective individual processes (plasma, Cold Spraying, arc or oxy-fuel, etc.). The coatings of large areas can be accomplished at much higher quality and deposition rates than conventional plasma, arc or flame spray techniques and at a far lower cost. These benefits have been accomplished through a specially designed torch head and power supply modulation unit. The system does not require expensive argon-helium based plasma of hydrogen, nitrogen or helium mixtures but rather uses air plasma alone or in combination with hydrocarbon fuel. The plasma chemical technology overcomes a previously fundamental limitation of air plasma systems - oxidation of the coating. In addition, the proprietary design of the torch head and supply modulation unit produces both superior coating and substantially reduces the erosion rate of expensive torch electrodes thereby significantly increasing the resource of operating time of a plasma generator. Detailed design specifications and process validation experiments have been of successfully completed, and the design, technology and market of a pre-production prototype has passed through an evaluation by potential strategic partners with the impressive estimation.