Development and Investigations of special DC-Plasma Generator “Penta”

Due to the growing application fields, the development of plasma generators has become increasingly important in recent years. Nowadays, the application range of DC-plasmas stretches from a plethora of coatings on metallic surfaces, metallization of plastic materials, surface cleaning and activation, plasma welding and spacecraft propulsion systems. The use of plasma generators for thermal surface coating has grown enormously in the field of thermal insulation and wear-resistant coatings, especially with regard to deposition of refractory oxide ceramic layers using powders such as aluminum oxide, alumina / titania, zirconia and chromium oxide. Also, for the plasma-assisted surface treatment, generators for both wide extended planar surfaces, as well as more complex structures have been designed and industrially established. Nonetheless, innovative plasma sources are still being developed to provide more-efficient, tailor-made solutions due to their specific characteristics. A brief overview of the new innovative development of DC-plasma generator “Penta” are shown. Thereby the special setup, first diagnostic results, including coatings, are presented and discussed within the paper. The complete paper concludes with an outlook for future diagnostic measurements and possible future applications for this DC-plasma torch.