Accuraspray 4.0 to Characterize In-flight Particles in SPS Process

Suspension plasma spray (SPS) experiences a transition from research and development centers to everyday production lines. Monitoring the characteristics of in-flight particles during coating process is essential for two domains and it improves the repeatability and reproducibility of result. Accuraspray 4.0 is a new version of diagnostic tool in its family adapted for the SPS process to measure velocity and temperature of the in-flight particles. Previous versions of the system were specialized for monitoring atmospheric plasma spray (APS), used double point measurement to calculate the temperature. However, in the new version, the temperature reading was improved by applying a single point measurement and an enhanced signal filtering. In this paper, the temperature and velocity of the in-flight particles were measured and compared by two versions of Accuraspray. Validity of temperature measurement was investigated by studying collected splats. The size and shape of splats was correlation to the online acquired temperature. This study showed the new diagnostic system was correctly adjusted to the small size of particles and severe plasma spray condition.