The durability of tools and machine components not only plays a role from an economic point of view, but is also becoming increasingly important in terms of sustainability. The quality of the surface coating is particularly important here.
In plasma spraying, an electric arc is ignited between the cathode and anode in the nozzle. The high energy effect of the arc on the gases, such as argon and hydrogen, creates a plasma with a very high temperature. After this plasma emerges from the nozzle, the powdered coating material is injected, melted and accelerated towards the substrate surface. This produces very dense layers with a porosity of less than 1%. A wide range of coating materials can be used. In addition to metallic coating materials, ceramic coating materials can also be processed. The latter in particular offer good wear resistance as they are sprayed onto the substrate at very high temperatures.
A modern atmospheric plasma spraying system recently commissioned at Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH (type: DELTA MFP 2000, manufacturer: GTV Verschleißschutz GmbH) has a 3-cathode system. This significantly improves the properties of the sprayed coatings due to a more homogeneous distribution of the coating materials used. Furthermore, high powder feed rates of up to 600 g/min can be realized. The high plasma temperature of up to 20,000 K creates the conditions for spraying ceramic coatings in particular.
