Vacuum Plasma Spray (VPS) System Considerations for Plasma Spraying Titanium Coatings for Biomedical Applications

AMT AG (Dottingen, Switzerland) designs vacuum plasma spray systems (VPS) and has recently produced (and delivered) a system for spraying titanium coatings for biomedical applications.   The increase use of thermal spray coatings in biomedical applications for dental and spinal implants requires designers to provide special considerations in the VPS system design.

The goal of the equipment design is to enable production rate spraying of titanium, without exposure to oxygen and nitrogen, onto biomedical components (dental implants, spinal implants).  The VPS system will spray many parts in a single batch operation to enable a competitive priced coating solution.  In addition to the biomedical components located in the VPS chamber, a 6-axis robotic and 2-axis turntable will be stationed in the chamber to enable coating critical areas on the parts.    This talk will discuss special design considerations that are required for providing titanium coatings, and the challenges in providing such coatings.

Spray trials will be performed to examine coating properties as a function of plasma spray parameters.  Microstructure and mechanical property evaluations will be conducted for the VPS produced coatings.  Microstructural analysis will be conducted evaluating coating buildup, oxides and porosity using optical microscopy.