Engineers from Tecnar Automation and Concordia University, both of Quebec, presented “Accuraspray 4.0 to Characterize In-flight Particles in the SPS Process.” Suspension plasma spray (SPS) is a thermal spray technology that is in the process of being transitioned from research and development centers to everyday production lines. Monitoring the characteristics of in-flight particles during the coating process is essential for two domains, and it improves the repeatability and reproducibility of results.
Accuraspray 4.0 is a new version of a diagnostic tool in its family adapted for the SPS process to measure velocity and temperature of the in-flight particles. Previous versions of the system were specialized for monitoring atmospheric plasma spray (APS), and they used double point measurement to calculate the temperature. However, in the new version, the temperature reading has been improved by applying a single point measurement and enhanced signal filtering.
In this paper, temperature and velocity of the in-flight particles were measured and compared by two versions of Accuraspray. Validity of the temperature measurement was investigated by studying collected splats. The size and shape of splats was correlated to the online acquired temperature. This study showed that the new diagnostic system was correctly adjusted to the small size of particles and severe plasma spray.
Authors:
Mr. Ali Akbarnozari , Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Mr. Olivier Bamber , Mr. Jean-David Grenon , Mr. Marc Choquet , Mr. Luc Pouliot, Tecnar Automation Ltd., St-Bruno, QC, Canada www.tecnar.com
Prof. Christian Moreau , Concordia University
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