Thermal spray abradable seal coatings are widely used in aircraft and industrial gas turbine applications (IGT). This specially designed class of materials is used to decrease gas path clearance between the stator casing and the rotor blade tips. The benefit to aircraft and IGT manufacturers is the increase in engine efficiency and the decrease in fuel consumption; thus reducing operating costs. Coatings, however, are difficult to design because they must readily abrade and yet have to be resistant to particle erosion such that coatings survive between engine overhaul. Other technical design requirements are the compatibility with different blade tip materials, operating temperatures and environment. Blade incursion and velocity are also critical design considerations. This paper will review the technical advances of abradable coatings and will relate these advances to how manufacturing engineers can utilize these materials with new thermal spray gun technology to improve coating durability and reduce application costs.