Evaluation of a Single Arc High Efficiency Plasma Gun

A single arc High Efficiency Plasma Gun is presented that has been fully developed and tested by Sulzer Metco in association with Sulzer Innotec.  By taking advantage of key design elements from the Triplex gun platform, this single cathode gun demonstrates significant improvements in performance over conventional plasma guns while being directly compatible with most existing plasma spray systems. A series of commonly used coatings are presented with associated microstructure analysis. Included in the coating evaluations are analysis of in flight particle states and in situ stress states. Financial cost of coating data are presented including deposit efficiencies, rates of application, voltage decay rates, and service life.