Development of Tailored YSZ TBCs Using the TriplexPro- 210 Torch

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) has been widely used as thermal barrier coatings in the gas turbine industry. Today, various thermal spray powders, process parameters and thermal spray equipment are used to tailor a wide array of coating microstructures and characteristics for specific applications in aerospace and industrial gas turbines (IGTs).  Triplex technology has proved to increase process stability, component life, coating repeatability, feedstock throughputs, and efficiencies.  In this paper, TriplexPro-210 YSZ coatings exhibiting various microstructures, will be characterized and studied.  In addition, the influences of powder characteristics and thermal spray process parameters on coating microstructures and thermal cycling performance will be compared. Furthermore, the correlations between in-flight particle states, coating microstructures and coating stresses will be evaluated.  TriplexPro-210 technology produces cost-effective, robust and repeatable TBCs when compared those produced with conventional thermal spray technologies.