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2180 |
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Monday, May 03, 2010, Moor Room 10:30 AM Plasma Spraying 1 |
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New conventional plasma gun with high performance: ProPlasma HP |
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Alain Allimant* / Saint-Gobain C.R.E.E., France Dominique Billières / Saint-Gobain Coating Solutions, France |
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Saint-Gobain Coating Solutions new plasma gun has been evaluated for typical demanding applications of the thermal spray industry. This gun is based on a conventional plasma gun design (single anode-single cathode) with optimized plasma gas injection and electrode shapes. A general overview of this new gun and its main features will be presented. This gun was developed to fulfil the whole range of applications of plasma spraying, from high feed rate ?high deposit efficiency to high velocity. First, plasma spraying performance of this gun will be exposed through 2 typical examples of materials extensively sprayed: YSZ and chromia and for which high deposit efficiency at high feed rates are targeted. A set of spraying parameters has been developed for yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) Saint-Gobain #204 powder (20-95µm, hollow spherical (HOSP)) showing 57% deposit efficiency at 150g/min and fulfilling the porosity specification for thick TBC with 13 to 14 % porosity (image analysis on cross-section). Two sets of parameters were developed for chromia (17-45µm, sintered) leading either to 3% porosity coating at 120g/min with 51% DE or to a denser 2% porosity coating at 120g/min with 42% DE. Then, the possibility to reach a high velocity mode will be showed, through the presentation of the anode development made for a typical high velocity application material: WC-Co. After a first design showed experimental promising results with low porosity, the anode design has been investigated and improved using CFD modelling. (tests under progress) This plasma gun (PrpPlasma HP) has show performance levels in the range or over the new generation plasma guns which show more complicated and costly designs. These first two parameter set developments indicate the level achievable by optimized conventional type plasma guns. |