Applications / metallic and ceramic coatings deposited by plasma thermal spray : thickness measurement
Thermal spray coatings consist in sending the coating material (powder or wire) in a heating medium (plasma, electric arc...) and/or with a certain speed (HVOF) before having it go on the substrate with a certain fusion and speed level allowing it to bind.
Those coatings are used in various industrial fields such as aeronautic engines, automotive engines, biomedical bone prostheses or gaz turbines.
The need of a thickness control technology for the deposited coating is essential due to the structure of the coating in surface and inside the matter, to the deposited thickness level and to the technicity of the produced parts.
Coatings deposited by plasma spray thermal projection :
- Contactless and non destructive
- Possible to measure high temperature parts
- High repetition rate for continuous following of the thickness
- Available for metallic and ceramic coatings
- Possible to measure inside cylinders
- Possible to measure before and after boring
- Automated storage and archiving of referenced measurement data
- Live communication stream of data to line controller
Examples of applications
• Medical prothesis coatings (hydroxyapatite, titanium…)
• Aircraft engines coatings : turbine blades, compressor blades, sealing (nickel, zinc, copper, aluminium… alloys)
• Automotive cylinder bore spray coatings (iron on aluminium)
• Gaz and energy turbine blades coatings
Advantages and savings :
- Nondestructive and fast measurement allows to improve precision, gain time and increase the number of data compared to cross section and profilometer measurements.
- When implemented inside the plasma chamber, allows to follow the thickness of the layer between different deposition steps.
