Study on the new solution of air plasma spray for improving the performance of amorphous coatings

Abstract

Thermal spray processes found wide applications in many industries, including the automotive industry due to their versatility and efficiency. There were a lot of publications about the hard-facing of these components using some thermal spray processes: electric arc wire, High Velocity Oxygen - Fuel (HVOF), detonation, and plasma. The decision of the engineer depends on the context based on the specific character of the component, the operation condition, and the availability of the equipment. The typical generation plasma gas is the inert gas, namely the argon, helium, or their mixture. Recent publications have shown the result of deposition using amorphous powder, cermet, and self-flux materials. However, there is a lack of investigation on the air plasma spray using Fe-based powders. The contribution of this work is the new combining solution, including the innovation of a plasma torch, to spray Fe-based powders in the ordinary air for hard-facing provided wear resistance.